Hyperdimension Neptunia: The Rising Darkness (TO BE REWRITTEN)
by Bluebottlejr - The Mad God
Summary: Chosen by destiny yet able to decide his own fate, a young man is forced into the Hyperdimension thanks to a mysterious dimension travelling man, and due to a prophecy. With Gamindustri threatened by a rising darkness how will a young man - the last of his race - and his friend be able to cope with sadists, goddesses, unnerving visions and romance? The Dark Times are approaching...
1. Prologue

Hyperdimension Neptunia

The Rising Darkness

 ***PS: I do not own anything in here except for my OCs***

 **Prologue**

Brian lay on his bed, sighing as he stared at his ceiling; the whiteness of the ceiling was still there, despite the cobwebs that were beginning to spread across the place. His light-brown cowlick had started to grow thicker and longer as he could see it starting to creep nearer to his eyes. He looked over at his digital clock; it read 12:07 AM.

 _So much for getting to bed earlier, if that damn dragon hadn't appeared near Dawnstar then I would've at least gone to bed at around 11:55 PM._

Brian was referencing the Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, one of his favourite RPGs of all time, he would usually spend hours at it before he realised that it was getting late. This wasn't the first time Brian had stayed up late; in fact his parents had silently accepted that fact and kept quiet about it.

Brian's relationship with his parents wasn't the best; he and his dad never saw eye to eye and thus would not hold a conversation with each other and apparently, according to Brian himself, they hadn't had a decent conversation for over eight years. His mother was a different matter, they managed to get along well enough but they also didn't see eye-to-eye much of the time as well. These issues seemed to come from the unsociable side of Brian. He lacked some social abilities, he wasn't quite fit, he hated human contact and his friends from high school would constantly annoy him to breaking point as his patience had waned over the last decade, causing him to have outbursts of anger attacks.

Games, books, animals, anime and manga is what kept him sane from the moment he was born to his current age. It wasn't the best background a 17 year old could have, but many others had worse.

Dressed in his black pyjamas with blue buttons he got off the bed and stood up straight, he measured around 6 feet (which was just a small reason why he was teased at school), he also had brown eyes and an expression that seemed to be a mix of frowning and glaring, as if he never smiled in his life. He walked across his room and arrived at what he called his 'Sword Podium'. There was just one sword there only, strapped to a wooden board that housed it, the sword was handmade and was a copy of a Roman Gladius. The gladius was around 2 feet tall but it wasn't sharp, which was something that Brian was quite relieved about.

While holding the sword he also found a book nearby, he picked it off the ground and looked at the title, it read 'A History of Rome'. Yes, he was a fanatic about Roman culture, architecture, military tactics and history. Grinning, he held onto the book and opened it, "Well, I suppose I can read a chapter or three."

As he turned around back to his bed he heard a strange sound coming from behind him, when he turned around he looked at his door and saw what astrologers would kill for; some type of tear in the fabric of space and time.

"A worm-hole?" Brian asked himself. "How's that possible? And why is it in my room? It should be in space, and why am I not panicking like a normal human?"

He didn't have much time to consider any answers though, the worm-hole began to get larger and swirl around even faster than before. "Um, why am I moving towards it?"

Indeed he was correct, he was moving towards the tear in space, much to his shock. "Damn this, I don't want to get in there, even if it is for science!"

Brian didn't have much choice in the matter as he felt his body being lifted up from the ground, and suddenly he was being sucked into the worm-hole. Realising that he couldn't do anything to stop it he said the only sane thing he could, "Oh come oooooooo…"


	2. Gamindustri

***Hey folks, the prologue was shorter than I expected but it got the point through, I hope. This chapter isn't quite long however, but at any rate enjoy yourselves***

 **Chapter 1: Gamindustri**

The night sky was bright, the stars were out an about and down below some people were asleep while others enjoyed romantic moments while looking at the sky. However, two people walked along the street towards a house nearby, one of the girls (who was wearing a white cotton jumper, red and black dress and had hair that was a mix of light orange and pink) sighed and slummed forward, "I'm tired Iffy, I wanna go to bed."

The girl next to her (who was wearing an oversized blue and black coat that had a number of pockets filled with phones, she was also wearing small black shorts an a black top underneath it), who had long brown hair with a green leef attached to the left side of the hair and had emerald coloured eyes sighed as she looked at her comrade. "We're almost at your house, Compa," said IF. "Honestly, you're a handful at times."

Compa moaned as she continued to walk, IF crossed her arms and looked at the night sky as she grimaced about the previous event that had kept them occupied.

 _I was not expecting those monsters to put up a fight, let along for two Fernirs to turn up at all. Next time we won't be so lucky._

Then something caught her eye, as she looked at the sky she saw what seemed to be a comet plunging towards the surface, and it was nearby. "Compa, look up there!" IF shouted as she grabbed her friend and pointed.

"Wow, let's make a wish," Compa suggested.

IF then looked more closely as the object began to land, "Hold on a minute, that's not a rock, that looks more … alive."

"Hmm? What do you mean 'alive'?"

"Exactly that. It isn't a rock, it looks more … human, and it's making a noise."

As they looked up at it they heard the words "…ome ooooooooonnnnnnnn!" Then the object landed and created a large noise that sent a small shockwave through the area, causing dirt and dust to fly around. After the impact IF and Compa opened their eyes to see everything still intact.

"We should investigate this and see what we can find, I'm sure the Guild or even Historie would want to know about this," IF said as she and Compa ran to the source.

Brian opened his eyes and immediately sat up and looked around him, from what he could see he was in some sort of green metal … tank?

 _Well, whatever it is it sure smells._

He noticed that he was still clutching onto his sword and book and when he looked down on what he was sitting on it all made sense to him.

Oh, I'm in a dumpster. Well that explains the smell, and why there's a banana peel on my head.

The banana peel fell off him as he stood and took a look outside the dumpster, what caught his eye was the buildings. "What the hell, where am I?"

He then heard footsteps coming from around the corner, and what he saw was surprising. Two girls ran around the corner and approached the dumpster, a look of bewilderment crept onto their faces as they saw the scene in front of them.

"Well, this I couldn't imagine," remarked the girl in the oversized coat.

"If Nep-Nep were here she would make some a funny remark about this," said the other girl.

Brian stared at them for a few seconds before saying anything to them. To him they were quite smaller in height and dressed in peculiar clothes, well it was weird to him. "Um, who are you two?"

The girl in the skirt looked up and smiled at him. "Well, I'm Compa and this here is Iffy. Nice to meet you."

The girl mentioned as 'Iffy' sighed and shook her head. "I'm actually called IF, pleased to meet you. Now, what's your name?"

Brian opened his mouth to answer her before a though crossed his mind.

 _Hold on a moment, it wouldn't be like me to tell two complete strangers my name; in fact I'm surprised they even told me their names._

Compa and IF looked at Brian and noticed he wasn't saying anything to them. "Are you ok? You don't seem to be talking, "asked Compa.

"Maybe he's just nervous, after all we only just met," remarked IF.

 _Hmm, what should I tell them … oh, I got a name. My gamer name._

"My name is Bluebottlejr." That got some stares at him.

"Seriously, that's your name?" asked IF. "And you don't seem to be happy either." She eyed him suspiciously as he looked back at her.

"Why should I? If you were pulled into a worm-hole and then spat out from the sky into a dumpster wouldn't you be overly pissed?" Brian asked IF in a rude tone.

IF raised an eyebrow as she thought to herself.

 _He isn't happy, that's certain, but I don't think it's just because he fell from the sky. There's something odd about him, and his name doesn't seem right. Not to mention how he appears, he seems to look … well, more than fed up, he even looks like he's glaring at us._

Her thoughts were broken when Compa started talking to Brian aka Bluebottlejr. "Well, nice to meet you Bluebtjl… Bluregottl… eh…"

"If you can't say my full name you can shorten it down to 'Blue', hows that?" suggested Brian.

"Hmm … Blue … that sounds nice. Yes, Blue it is. Hello Blue-Blue," replied a happy Compa.

IF smirked and shook her head. "At least we now know what happened. So tell me Blue, are you from around here?"

Brian shook his head. "I see," remarked IF. Before she could get any further information out of him Compa walked right up to Brian, who was still in the dumpster.

"Hey Blue, what's that in your hands?" she asked.

Brian looked at his hands and then back at Compa, "Well, this a book and that is a sword," he explained calmly.

IF raised an eyebrow at that remark. "Why do you even have a sword with you in the first place? And what book is it?"

"Well, to answer your first question; I like swords and for your second question this is a book about the history of Rome."

Both IF and Compa looked at Brian with a confused face. "Um, what is 'Rome'" asked Compa.

"You know, the city of Rome … the capital of Italy … home of the Catholic church … one of the greatest cities in Western Europe?" Brian looked at the two confused girls before sighing. "You've never heard of it before then?"

Both girls shook their heads. Brian groaned suddenly looked depressed. "Aw nuts, that means I'm possibly in another dimension now. Just great, especially when I was about to go to sleep …" he continued to mumble afterwards.

"Wait a moment, you're from another dimension then?" asked IF. Brian looked at her with a sad face.

"It would seem like that, but now I doubt I'll ever get back, plus I don't want to sleep in this damn dumpster!"

IF and Compa glanced at each other, Compa smiled at IF before approaching Brian, suddenly IF realised what she was going to ask him. IF sighed and shook her head.

"Would you like to stay with us until you feel like leaving?" Compa asked Brian.

Brian was stunned at the proposition that he was offered; he looked at Compa for a minute before speaking. "Are you sure? Wouldn't I just be a burden to you two?"

IF shook her head. "Nah we'll be fine, there's a guest room that you can use during your stay. But we'll have to take you to Histoire later in the morning."

"Who's Histoire?" asked Brian.

"She's Planeptune's oracle and the one who really runs the business in the nation," answered IF. "I pity her at times, Neptune is an unbelievable goddess."

Brian raised an eyebrow when he heard that. "So, this nation is actually ruled by a goddess? A real goddess?"

"Yep, I've no doubt that you'll bump into her when you meet Histoire," IF replied.

"Come on Blue-Blue, get out of that smelly dumpster and come with us," Compa said to him.

"Very well then," Brian replied as he jumped out of the dumpster and walked with the two girls back to their place.

"You'll need to wash yourself before anything else once we get back. Understood?" said IF to Brian.

"Yes ma'am," replied Brian.

"Please, just call me IF," she giggled. "But don't call me Iffy, that's personal."

"Alright then."

The three of them continued to Compa's home as Compa attempted, and failed, to extract information from Brian about his dimension while IF ignored the lot of them. At the same time a hooded man peered from his position atop a roof and watched the three of them walking down the street. His eyes flickered a ghostly blue before turning red.

 _Good, good. It's coming together now. Lets hope it continues this way, don't get yourself killed or else everything will fall apart, Brian.  
_


	3. Meeting the Tome Fairy

**Chapter 2: Meeting the Tome Fairy**

Brian slowly opened his eyes to see a creamy white wall facing him, he then sat up and looked around him to see that he was in a room.

 _Oh, right. I stayed at Compa's house for the night._

He got out of the bed and stretched his back out, relieving any cramp that he had. After spending four minutes by star jumping and failing to do push ups, he realised that he hadn't any proper clothes to wear.

 _Well I could wear my pyjamas, but that would raise an eyebrow or two. Guess I'll have to ask the girls if they have some sort of coat that I can borrow._

Just then he heard a knock on the bedroom door and a voice from the other side. "Hey Blue, are you up?"

Brian recognised the voice as IF's. "Yep, been awake for a few minutes," replied Brian. "Um, sorry for asking but do you girls have some sort of coat that I can borrow? I don't want to walk around to the Basilicom in my pyjamas."

"I think I might have a spare coat in my wardrobe, and perhaps even some shoes from Compa's."

"Why would she have shoes that would belong to a male in the first place?"

"Family," was the reply Brian received.

"Very well then, can I take a look at them?"

"Let me get them first," IF answered.

"Right, sorry."

Brian then sat down on the bed and waited for IF to return. To pass the time he began to read his book, which he still found interesting and informative despite reading it several times. After several minutes of reading he heard a knock on his door.

"Found some things you may like," IF said. "Is it safe to open the door?"

"Yea, go ahead," replied Brian.

The door opened and IF stood in the doorway holding a small pile of clothing and a pair of dark brown boots on top. She set them down next to Brian and she looked at the book he continued to read, he noticed that she was wearing the same outfit from when they first met but decided to not question it.

"Hmm, you remind me of Blanc," remarked IF.

Brian looked up at her. "Blanc? Who's Blanc?"

"She's one of the four goddesses that rule Gamindustri, she resides in Lowee and possibly owns one of the largest libraries that I've seen."

Brian nodded and put on what IF called his 'thinking face', it involved Brian raising his lower lip over his upper lip to which he would then stare at nothing.

"Interesting, I like books and libraries, perhaps I could check it out one day," he thought aloud.

"Yea, if you could get past her personality and the fact that she rarely has any visitors, especially if they're people she doesn't know."

Brian shrugged and took a look at what IF brought him; several pairs of coats and jackets in a variety of colours and size were available to him, but one caught his attention, a plain brown coloured trench coat that looked as if it would fit him, it had two pockets on the outside and a pocket on the inside and the buttons were a hazelnut colour.

"I think we found a winner," said Brian.

"Try it on then, see if it goes with you," suggested IF.

Brian nodded, stood up and put on the coat, and it fitted him nicely. He then put on the boots before turning to IF and letting her gaze look upon his new attire.

"Hmm, not too bad, could be better if you had some proper clothes though," remarked IF.

"Then that's what I'm going to do after this little 'meeting', shopping."

Compa then walked into the doorway and looked at Brian before smiling. "Looking snazzy there, Blue-Blue."

Brian blushed as he scratched the back of his head, "Well, that's the first time anyone has said that to me before, I'm embarrassed."

IF sighed and shook her head. "Hey Compa, is breakfast ready?"

Compa nodded. "Yep, it's all good to eat. You feeling hungry, Blue-Blue?"

He nodded in response. "Alright then, let's eat!" said a happy Compa.

-Sometime Later-

Brian, IF and Compa walked on the footpath towards the Basilicom, heading for a meeting with Histoire. Brian put his hands in his coat's pockets and proceeded to look glum.

After breakfast the girls took Brian to a clothes shop to buy some decent clothes, Brian had said that he would get some after meeting Histoire but IF and Compa dragged him to the shopping district to get some anyway, mainly because IF had said that he should look respectable and decent.

After spending over an hour looking at different pants, shirts and socks Brian managed to acquire some that fitted him, IF and Compa paid for it with the currency of Gamindustri: credits. Brian now wore dark blue trousers that had four pockets (when asked by Compa why he needed trousers that had four pockets he replied that it could come in handy later on), a black collared T-shirt and grey socks. He even came across a hat that would be considered a cap, it was an orange and black coloured cap with white lining.

Brian walked slowly behind the two girls in front of him, he was making sure that he wouldn't be too noticed by the people who were walking on the path as well. IF glanced behind her and noticed Brian being nervous.

"You ok?" she asked him.

He looked at her general direction as he spoke. "I'm still not used to too many people, you know. And besides, I'd rather not be noticed."

"What for? You scared that you'll be targeted by robbers?" she asked with a smirk.

Brian glared at her in response, causing IF to stop smirking and continue look in front of her. "Sorry, I suppose you're still not used to being in another dimension I guess," she mumbled.

IF wasn't expecting Brian to hear her so she was quite surprised when he spoke. "Don't worry about it, I'm just a little bit harsh towards people."

IF didn't reply to his comment, instead she smiled in response.

The three of them arrived inside the Planeptune Basilicom and immediately Brian was in awe of what he saw; to him it reminded him of a church, even a cathedral. IF noticed that Brian was amazed about what he was seeing and grinned.

"Pretty astounding huh?" she asked.

"You betcha," he replied. "Back from where I come from many people would call this thing a church or a cathedral."

"Were they used for worshipping?"

"Yep, they would worship some old bearded man that lived in the sky and they called him God," explained Brian. "Judging from the outlook of this particular building I'm guessing it does a similar job?"

"Correct. People come here to worship the goddess, which in this case is Neptune and her younger sister Nepgear, who also lives here."

Brian nodded. "Judging from the height and structural look of it I would say that is encompasses living spaces, but wouldn't people get jealous because of it?"

Compa shook her head in response. "As long as Nep-Nep and Ge-Ge help the people then it's all good."

Brian nodded before he heard a voice coming from nearby down the corridor. "Ah, good to see you again IF and Compa, and I see you have bought you dimensional friend with you as well."

Brian turned around and noticed that the voice belonged to a small girl that was atop a … floating book? Brian rubbed his eyes and looked again, and still he saw the girl on a floating book right in front of them. She had blonde hair, a purple and white dress with white stockings and a small little hat with the letter 'N' on it. She continued to smile as IF addressed her.

"Yep, we're all here," IF then turned to Brian. "This is Blue, the guy from another dimension."

The tome fairy nodded and approached Brian. "Greetings, I am Histoire, the Oracle of Planeptune, pleased to meet you."

"I'm Blue, and I never expected you to be a fairy of sorts," he replied.

Histoire just smiled at the comment. "I guess it would be quite different from what you would normally see, but you shouldn't worry about that."

As Hsitoire looked at Brian she wasn't quite sure how best to describe him; she would say that he was a tall young man in a brown trench coat with dark blue trousers, a black shirt and brown boots, a baseball cap and a 2 foot long sheathed sword strapped to the left side of his waist. But she had a hard time attempting to decipher his face, to her he seemed to be … unhappy, a frowning expression and eyes that made it look like he was piercing into a person's soul. She also noticed that his fingers would twitch from time to time.

 _Perhaps anxiety? Nervousness? A thirst for battle? Hard to say, yet despite his appearance he may not be such a bad person. I'll have to talk to him in private._

"Excuse me, Blue, would you mind if I talked to you in private for a couple of minutes?" Histoire asked.

Brian shrugged. "Sure, it's the reason I came here anyway."

"Very well," said Histoire. She then turned back to IF and Compa, who were busy talking to one another. "Excuse me girls, I'm going to talk to Blue for a moment, Neptune is in her usual place if you want to spend time with her and Nepgear is out for a while at the Guild."

IF nodded in response while Compa smiled. "Alright then, we'll leave him to you." The two girls made their way down the corridor towards an elevator. With them gone Histoire turned back to Brian with her full attention.

"Now then, down to business. Can you explain how you managed to cross from you dimension into ours?" Histoire asked Brian.

As Brian explained to the tome fairy about the wormhole that caused a tear in the fabric of time and space right at his bedroom door and the events that occurred when he met IF and Compa, Histoire was taking notes in a little notebook that had a purple cover with the letter 'N' on it. After Brian had finished speaking Histoire stopped writing and nodded.

"Hmm, very interesting. I fact this gives insight to the recent activities that have been occurring lately."

"What do you mean?" Brian asked with a puzzled expression.

"Well, lately there have been sightings of comets in the night skies that have landed in the surroundings throughout Gamindustri, and they are practically similar to your case. Perhaps even the same."

"Were there any traces of it on the ground, and how many sightings have there been?"

"Well, there have been no traces of these so-called comets on the ground, no craters, scorch marks, nothing at all. And as for sightings, well there's been around five sightings so far, not including yours of course."

Brian rubbed his chin with his index finger and he hummed. "I'd call that suspicious, especially since there hasn't been any traces on the ground."

Histoire nodded with a smile. "It is quite relieving to know that I'm not the only one who finds it odd."

"Hmm? Doesn't the local goddess care about it at all?"

"Well, let's say that she's more occupied with her games, food and sleep rather than all these disturbances of late," sighed Histoire.

"What's she like?" asked Brian, who was curious about the goddesses' personality.

"I'd think it best if you saw her for yourself, then you would get a first hand understanding of what I have to deal with here."

Brian nodded while beginning to dread about where it was all going. The two of them made their way towards the elevator and began their ascend to the residence of the CPU's of Planeptune while Histoire was preparing herself to a future 'lecture'.

 ***This is a thanks to those who are reading this fanfic and for those who are following it etc etc, you get the point at least. I'll be posting chapter 3 sometime in the next few days so stay alert.***


	4. Fourth Wall Breaking

**Chapter 3: Fourth Wall Breaking  
**

Stepping out out of the elevator, Brian walked down the corridor while Hisotire kept at a steady pace on her floating tome. The walls were a creamy white and purple mixture. Suddenly voices could be heard coming from a room not far down the corridor, Brian knew two of the voices but couldn't distinguish the other.

"Down there in that room," said Brian while pointing. "Is that where your goddess is?"

Histoire nodded. "She barely leaves that room unless she's out of pudding."

Brian glanced at her with a confused expression. "Seriously, pudding of all things?"

Histoire only sighed in response. "She may be just … a little bit addicted to it."

At that moment the two of them appeared in the doorway and before them was a fairly large room that encompassed a small kitchen in a corner, a large TV with what seemed to be game discs lying all over the floor near the purple couch that was positioned right in front of the screen. On the couch there was a smallish girl with purple hair with two d-pad accessories strapped to it, she wore a white and purple hoodie dress and also wore white and purple stripped stockings. She appeared to be playing a game that was distracting her from IF, who was attempting to get her attention while Compa was in the kitchen, rummaging through the fridge.

"Come on Neptune, you can't do this all day," explained IF. "You do realise that you've been plating this for most of the day you know?"

"Ah so what?" replied the purple haired girl. "Besides, I'm sure the author will set up an event flag sometime soon anyway."

Brian raised an eyebrow at that remark as he heard her say those words.

 _Did she just break the fourth wall? Never in my life has someone attempted to do that._

"I'm guessing that you're wondering about Neptune breaking the fourth wall?" asked Histoire.

"Um, yea. Is that normal for her?"

Histoire sighed and nodded. Brian took a glance at her once more, this time Compa had given her a cup of pudding and it looked as if she paused her game to eat her treat while IF shook her head.

"Are you sure that she's the goddess of Planeptune?" Brian asked Histoire.

"Yes, she is the goddess."

Brian shook his head in disbelief. Back at the couch, IF looked up and noticed the two figures standing in the doorway.

"Hey there Histoire, Blue," she commented.

Compa looked up and smiled as they both approached them. "Good to see you two again."

Brian nodded to them both as his attention was caught by Neptune.

"Hey there fella, I haven't seen you around these parts before," remarked Neptune. "See Iffy, I told you that the author would raise some sort of event flag."

Brian looked at the small, chirpy fourth wall breaker in front of him with a surprised look upon his face. "Seriously? Since when was I classified as an event flag?"

"Well since you're the only male NPC with an actual face to appear in this room I'd say that would be an event flag."

IF put her hand on her face and sighed while Histoire looked at Neptune with a forceful expression on her face.

"Neptune, this is not something that you can compare your game references to it, the situation may be more serious than I would have thought."

Neptune sat up straight with a shocked look. "Hey there Histy calm down, you don't want to explode or anything do you?"

Histoire grumbled and frowned at Neptune. "Do you even remember when I told you about the comet sightings?"

"Um, that may have slipped my pure, fragile mind," she replied while scratching the back of her head.

Histoire shook her head and sighed yet again. "Very well then, I explain it all over again to you."

After Histoire explained it to Neptune she then had to introduce Brian/Blue to the pudding obsessed goddess and explain what happened to him and why he was here, Neptune beamed at Brian Histoire finished her explaination.

"Well hello there traveller, as you may have guessed I'm Neptune, the great protagonist of this fanfic."

"Is that what you usually do everyday? Break the fourth wall?" he asked her.

"Yepperoni! It's what I do, after all I am the main character."

"I doubt that I'll ever understand you," sighed Brian.

"Ah don't worry 'bout it, besides, I'm sure that the author will give you something cool to do in the future."

Feeling that he was getting nowhere with this strange goddess, he decided to make a cue for his exit, mainly because he wasn't sure about how to deal with what he considered strange antics but also he wanted to walk around the city without interruptions. Turning to Histoire he decided to make his intentions clear.

"If I'm not needed here right now then I'm going down town to take a look around the place." As soon as he said that and walked towards the door he heard Histoire's voice.

"Blue, if you're going to walk around Planeptune I would suggest taking a guide with you, just in case you get lost."

"If you insist," sighed Brian.

"I'll take you around the city if you want," offered a voice from the couch.

Brian looked over at the couch and saw IF with a smile on her face. "After all, you barely know the place, so I can take you on a guide before you're able to wander safely on your own."

Brian nodded. "Very well then, I'll accept your offer."

Neptune looked at IF with a smirk. "Oooo Iffy, already getting on with the shipping it seems. Don't worry about it Iffy, but it is an early chapter so I would wait for a while before attempting anything."

Compa giggled at the remark while Histoire sighed and shook her head, IF was utterly red in the face and, to what Brian would describe it as, flustered.

"T-The hell d-d-d-do you think you're trying to p-p-pull, Neptune?!" IF asked her goddess friend in an angry tone.

Neptune waved her hands in front of her as an act of defence while attempting to calm her friend down. "Nepu! Hold your horses Iffy, I meant nothing by it."

IF shook her head and walked out into the corridor, Brian waved goodbye to everyone else and followed IF towards the elevator. When they got down onto the ground level IF sighed and glanced at Brian.

"Sorry about that, Neptune is usually like that all the time," she explained.

"Don't worry about it, it just means that there's something else for me to get used to now," responded Brian. "Although, I am suspicious about these so-called 'comets that have been sighted."

"Yea, we should stop by the Guild and see if there is any information about it, and if not then I'll introduce you to your first quest. How's that?"

"Sounds like a treat."

-Around the same time-

"He's an interesting guy," said Neptune as she ate her eighth pudding of the hour. "I never thought that I would meet some random guy from another dimension. I wonder if he likes pudding?"

"Well next time he's here you can ask him that, Nep-Nep," replied Compa.

Meanwhile, Histoire was frowning at Neptune, and with each passing minute she was getting even more annoyed than before. It wasn't long until her bubble burst. "Neptune, how long to you intend to stuff yourself silly with pudding for?"

"For as long as I can, I'm sure the author will allow me at least that."

Histoire grumbled and left the room, she clearly intended to return to Neptune and give her an earful at some point, but first she had to follow up on the 'comet' reports, and she had a few calls to make to her fellow oracles.

 _We have to keep an eye on Blue, I'm sure his coming has to do with the recent activities, but how he fits into it doesn't make sense to me. I hope that this mystery can be solved. For now I have a few calls to make with the other oracles concerning this issue, I hope that they have some insight to all this.  
_

 ***Author: About time the story introduced good ol' Nep, now then ... wait? What the ... (SMASH)**

 **Neptune: Hello folks, it's your main protagonist Neptune here! I knocked the author out cause he didn't give me a lot of lines in this chapter, but I'm sure that can be fixed in future chapters, so I might let this one slide ... maybe. Seeya guys next time!**

 **Author: Damn it Nep! That was my favourite plate you smashed on my head!**

 **Neptune: Uh, he looks kinda pissed so I really gotta go, bye bye.***


	5. Ramen and Sharp Objects

**Chapter 4: Ramen and Sharp Objects**

"And this here is the district where you'll find some of the best fast-food restaurants in Planeptune," explained IF to Brian as they continued to walk down the different streets.

Brian was amazed about the quality of technology and the style of the architecture of the buildings, it seemed to him that Planeptune was incredibly advanced, plus the people looked as if they were pleased with their current situation. As Brian glanced at one of the restaurants his stomach grumbled.

"Hmm?" IF looked at Brian, who was patting his stomach with his left hand while his right hand was twitching. IF never noticed it before, but ever since he began walking around the city he had been twitching on and off, this caused some concern to her.

"Are you ok? Your stomach seems it's hungry while your right hand is twitching," she asked him.

"I'm fine, I guess," he replied. "Just a little bit hungry, that's all."

"Alright then, but what about your twitch?"

"I-it's nothing, nothing to worry ab-bout," stammered Brian.

IF looked unconvinced with his answer, but decided not to press it further. "Well, since you're hungry I suppose we can order something to eat. How about some ramen?" she suggested.

"Um, sure, I never had ramen before so I'll have some. Pick anything out for me," Brian responded.

"Ok then, I'll order a bowl for myself as well, I'm starting to get hungry too."

Brian nodded before the two of them entered the ramen store and IF began to place their orders, the two of them then sat down at a nearby table at a window not far from the counter. Brian removed his sword and placed it at his feet while IF took a glance at it.

"I've never seen a sword design like that before," IF commented. "What type of sword is it?"

"Back in my dimension it would be classified as a Roman Gladius, useful in close combat and it excels at stabbing," replied Brian.

"Well you're going to need more than a stabbing sword to keep you alive if you wish to survive the quests at the Guild," she chuckled.

"That dangerous huh?"

"Well, not all of them. Some of them are just fetch quests, they're the easiest of the whole lot," explained IF. She then went into an explanation frenzy about the different types of quests and the ranks that they were placed into. As she got onto the part about the different ranks their bowls of ramen were placed onto the table. Brian's bowl consisted of freshly made ramen with pork and a touch of spices, it wasn't anything special but it looked good. Brian then took a glance at IF's bowl, it also consisted of fresh ramen but it had egg and various other sorts of ingredients. She was eating it happily.

Brian took his chopsticks and began to devour the meal in front of him, and it tasted delicious. It wasn't long before he completely devoured everything in his bowl, making sure that nothing was left. As he placed the empty bowl back onto the table he noticed IF was staring at him in bewilderment. Brian then noticed that she wasn't even nearly finished with what she was eating.

"Wow Blue, that was rather quick," she remarked.

"Well, back from where I come from I would normally eat quickly, mainly so I wouldn't have to listen to what my parents talked about during dinner time," he responded.

"Wouldn't that be considered a tad rude?" IF asked him with a raised eyebrow.

"It was a normal behaviour, on my part at least."

IF sat up straight and straightened her back out before addressing Brian again. "So, where do you want to go next?"

"Hmm..." Brian put his right hand over his chin and thought about the next location to visit. Suddenly a thought struck him.

"How about a weapon shop?" he suggested. "I haven't seen one yet, and I'm also curious about the different types of weapons that you people have around here."

IF nodded. "Good option, and you might find a better weapon than that sword of yours."

Brian frowned at IF. "Hey, it would be effective as long as it is sharp!"

"Wait a moment, is your sword blunt?"

Brian sighed and nodded, causing IF to giggle. "That's a first, hearing someone having a completely different sword style than anyone else and only to find out that it's blunt. Well done Blue, well done."

Brian glared viciously at her, causing the brunette to stop giggling. "Er … sorry about that."

Brian sighed but didn't say anything. Instead he closed his eyes, laid back into his seat and looked at the ceiling, causing IF to be concerned.

"Hey, um, Blue? You ok there?" she asked him. Brian leaned forward and glanced at IF, nodded, and then looked at the ground. IF noticed that Brian didn't like looking at people for too long, but she decided to talk to him later about it and his twitching problem later, for now she continued to eat her ramen.

Once IF had completed eating her dish she stood up, grabbed her and Brian's bowl and walked to the counter to hand them over to the owner at the counter. The owner was a middle aged man who wore a chefs hat and apron, he had a small beard and wore glasses that helped with his sight, he had blue eyes and from what IF could see he had shortish black hair. He smiled as he took the bowls from IF and took a glance at her once he set the bowls next to a sink.

"Thanks for dropping by, we don't get much service around here," he said.

"The ramen was pretty good, we enjoyed it so don't worry about it," responded IF.

"Well, I'm glad you and your boyfriend have good taste in ramen," he said, grinning as he saw IF get flustered and red in the face.

"W-w-w-what?! H-he's not my b-b-b-boyfriend!" IF was getting absolutely flustered and her stammer was getting worse especially in a situation like this.

"Hehehe, don't worry about it, just have fun."

IF quickly left the building, followed by Brian, who had strapped his sword back onto his left waist, put his hands in his pockets and became confused as to why IF was blushing madly. The two of them continued to walk along the street and Brian was thinking, mainly about the whole situation he had gotten himself involved with.

 _I still can't believe that I managed to survive being turned into an atom by that wormhole, I'm stuck in a dimension where goddesses are real, the technology is way advanced than what Earth has and now I'm acquaintances with an actual goddess who has a personality of a small child, a tome fairy, a busty nurse and a brunette with an oversized coat with a large number of phones. Still, it's better than being annoyed at school._

It was then that he notice that a voice was attempting to penetrate his thoughts. "…ey …ue?"

 _Hmm? Whoever it is can't they realise that I'm attempting to have a conversation with my own thoughts?_

"...re ...u ...ening ...me?"

Brian then shook his head quickly and got out of his thoughts. "Yes? What? What's happening?" he asked in a quick tone.

He looked to his left and saw IF with her arms crossed and a frown on her face. "I've been trying to get you to listen to me for the last minute," she responded. "Man, you tone out quickly."

"Oh, right, sorry 'bout that. Anyway, what were you trying to tell me?"

IF sighed and pointed at a nearby store. "That's the weapon store over there, you said you wanted to check it out right?"

Brian nodded. "Come with me, lets see if anything tickles your fancy, and let's see if they can sharpen your sword," said IF.

The two of them entered the store and Brian was met with a surprise; all sorts of futuristic weapons from swords to spears to various different rifles and handguns were laid on different shelves and racks. IF walked up to the counter and looked at the man behind it. He didn't appear to be fit, yet not overly fat either, his brown beard flowed down to his chest and he looked as if he was bald, he had an unrecognisable tattoo on his left arm and he wore a black shirt with a skull motive and dark green shorts. Brian had figured him to be one of those biker gangsters, yet he got quite the surprise when he spoke.

"Good afternoon Miss IF, how can I be of service to you?" he asked politely.

"Afternoon to you too, but I'm not here for anything, it's just for this guy," replied IF as she pointed at me. "I'm showing him around and thought that you could give us a hand with some new weapon for him."

The man nodded and walked around the counter with his hands in his pockets. "So, what is it that you are interested in?" he asked Brian.

"Well, is it possible for you to sharpen this sword for me?" Brian replied as he held his sheathed sword. The man scratched his chin and nodded.

"Yes, I can do that for you. May I have your sword please?"

Brian nodded and gave him his sword, the man took hold if it and took a look at the blade, running a finger over it. "Hmm, I have some sharpening tools at the back, I'll get to it right away." He then walked into the back of his store and the sounds of a grindstone could be heard.

"Take a look around, Blue, there must be something that you might like," IF said.

Brian nodded and began to walk along the aisles and look at each individual weapon, this process took around ten minutes before he came across a set of throwing knives. IF looked at what Brian was glancing at and picked the set up; it was a large belt that could be strapped from one shoulder to his waist, the knives themselves were bound in leather and when Brian took one out it was perfectly crafted; the hilt was made of smooth wood mixed with steel and the blade was made of steel with was shaped to penetrate any kind of armour. Brian counted the number of throwing knives that were included in the set; it numbered ten.

"Like the look of it Blue?" IF asked him.

"Yep I do. Throwing knives are practical before and during a fight, so I'm going to buy this," replied Brian.

They walked up to the counter and Brian placed the throwing knife belt down along side a sharpening stone, which he found on his way to the counter. The store-man returned with Brian's sword and handed it back to him.

"I see you found something you like then," commented the store-man. "Very well then, all together that's 2,000 credits."

IF paid for the items and together the two of them left the store while Brian strapped the belt across his body from his left shoulder to his right waist, then he placed the stone in a trouser pocket. As they continued to walk Brian noticed a building with many people entering and leaving.

"Hey IF, what's going on over there?" he asked while pointing at it.

"That's the Guild, it's where people go to do quests," answered IF. "Want to check it out? We still have some time before the afternoon gets dark, and we could even bump into Nepgear."

Brian nodded. "I suppose I can spend a few hours with the Guild doing quests."

As the two of them walked towards the Guild an unseen figure watched them from a dark alleyway, he wore a black hood with a black scarf which concealed most of his face, we also wore a black coat that was torn in different places, revealing broken pieces of chain mail armour, rugged pants that could have resembled a dark brown or blue colour but that had faded away, it too was torn in several places. The remains of leather armour could be seen where his shirt would be. As he continued to watch Brian and IF his eyes flickered between blue and red. This was the hooded man who had watched Brian, IF and Compa the previous night.

 _I better get myself a disguise at some point if I'm to get around here without causing suspicion. But at any rate, at least those 'Dark Captains' haven't been seen, at least not yet. I'll have to continue to watch of the boy if things are to go according to plan._


	6. An Unkown Threat

**Chapter 5: An Unknown Threat**

As the clouds floated over Gamindustri, silence was broken in the Virtua Forest. A man was leaning against a tree with his arms crossed, he wore a thick fur coat with a fur hood over his head, but beneath it he was wearing a dark leather armour vest, leather shoulder pads and leather padded pants. His eyes were black and dull, as if they were lifeless while he had a scar running across from his left eye to his mouth that resembled something similar to a bear scratch. A dark red leather helmet with blood red steel that made up the nose guard and different parts of the helmet in crude ways was laying next to a blood red coloured war-hammer that was upright against the same tree. The armoured stranger looked rather annoyed and would constantly crack his knuckles.

"Damn all this waiting, why can't we go and kill something already?!" snarled the armoured hammer wielder.

"Because we have to wait, stop your blood-lust before you get yourself killed," replied someone.

The hammer wielder looked at the other man; he wore a black cloak, a black hood, a chain mail vest covered by black rags while he also wore black pants with various daggers strapped to his belt, his leather boots looked worn out. His red and black coloured longsword was strapped to his back. He had an unnatural twisted grin and piercing dark yellow eyes, he skin was quite pale in comparison to his comrade.

"Personally, I'd rather not wait for the other two to get here," growled the hammer wielder. "Especially that damn disfigured guy."

"Yes, he isn't the most … nicest, if you'd put it like that, yet he has his uses, especially for his brutal cunning mind when it comes to interrogation."

The hammer wielder shuddered, unsure whether he should be pleased about having an ally like that or whether to be repulsed about him. Either way, he sounded to be utterly ruthless and brutal.

"Anyway, did you hear about the recent sighting in Planeptune?" asked the hooded man.

The hammer wielder looked at the hooded man with a confused face. "Planeptune? What's that? Can I kill it?"

The hooded man sighed and sat down on a log before talking. "No, you can't simply 'kill' Planeptune, because it is a city as well as the name of this landmass," sighed the hooded man. "Anyway, there was a comet sighting just the previous night, rather suspicious, don't you say?"

"Hey, didn't we come to this dimension by plummeting through the sky and into the ground? Like we were comets?"

The hooded man nodded. "Of course, that's how I managed to get us here, pity the four of us got separated though. Anyway, I have sources in the city that give me crucial information, and that new 'comet' incident is no joke. Besides, we still haven't uncovered why there was a fifth 'comet', therefore they may be related to a degree'."

The hammer wielder raised an eyebrow at that remark. "A fifth one? And how can they be related 'to a degree'?"

"Well, that fifth figure appeared two days after he or she managed to get here, and since there is only four of us 'Dark Captains', it's safe to say that this person isn't here by coincidence, and neither is this new guy."

"Hmm, can I kill them both once you find any info more info on them?"

"Possibly, but only if you won't make a scene, we don't want to have a repeat with the Burgdoff Massacre."

"So what? That damn village deserved what they got, and besides, they would have been a thorn in our side during the war."

The two of them remained silent for the next few minutes, neither one wanting to continue the conversation or start a new one. After ten minutes of silence the hammer wielder grabbed his weapon and, with a blood curdling yell, smashed the spike of the hammer into a nearby tree, then he ripped it out and swung the flat part of the hammer into the rest of the tree trunk, causing it to fall to the ground. The hooded man looked over his shoulder and saw the scene.

"Was that really necessary? I think that was a bit overboard," he commented. "I might start to feel sorry for the trees around here."

The hammer wielder glanced at him with a glare. "Oh, in the name of the Dark Lord, just shut up already!"

The hooded man shrugged, looked back at a random tree and began to hum, the hammer wielder grunted and walked back to the tree he was leaning on not long before. He then took a glance at the hooded man near him and had a thought.

"So anyway, how is being here going to help us in the return of the Dark Lord? We're not even in the right dimension for this sort of summoning you know," the hammer wielder asked.

"Don't worry about it, I have a plan after all," chuckled the hooded man. "But it will have to occur after the others have regrouped with us, then we'll strike. But first; information."

"Very well then, but what more people come into this damn forest? I already had to eliminate four adventurers this morning."

"Then you have my permission to slaughter them all, in anyway you see fit. But try and make it look like the monster did it, we don't want to catch the attention of the Planeptunian Guild or their CPUs, yet with your comment of the death of those four adventurers I say we keep our guard up."

The hammer wielder then grinned with anticipation. "Hell yea! It's been too long since I broke the bones of a pitiful person, these so-called monsters are nothing compared to a real fighter!"

"You just contradicted yourself by saying that it's been too long since you killed someone, don't you remember saying that you killed a few people earlier? Sometimes I wonder if you and that ruthless, disfigured tower of a man are similar," remarked the hooded man. That gave him quite a death stare by the hammer wielder.

"Grrr, how dare you consider that, you've got some nerve to think that me and that guy are alike!" he snarled. "I mean, come on, even that bloody philosopher of a woman would agree with me."

"You never know, she may be a stoic woman but she understands what I say, so I'm sure that she would agree with my statement."

The hammer wielder growled at him before swinging his hammer into another nearby tree. As the hooded man watched with boredom as the hammer wielder mutilated tree after tree he began to reflect the situation that he and his companions had gotten themselves into.

 _Damn that war, I doubt our master was actually prepared for it. Still, transporting ourselves through tears in the fabric of space was a last minute plan and I had no choice in the end, the Dark Lord sacrificed his own physical form to destroy as much of the enemy as he could, yet even that wasn't enough. If I ever meet The Wraith again I'll make sure that he dies properly. Even so, the four of us will have to work together to bring back our master. Me, that bloodthirsty hammer wielder, the disfigured tower of a man and lastly that cunning, but cruel, stoic woman._

Suddenly his thought were shattered when he noticed that the hammer wielder had stopped mutilating the trees. "I've had enough now, I'm going to see if there's anyone around here," said the hammer wielder.

Before he left the camp site he turned around and looked at the hooded man. "You know, despite fighting alongside you for years I never actually knew your proper name."

"Hmm? You ask me that question after all these years?" the hooded man responded with a confused look. "You should know by now that I don't have a name."

"Fine, whatever," replied the hammer wielder. He then threw back his fur hood, revealing his short messy black hair, he then picked up his helmet and placed it on his head before walking down a dirt path into the centre of the forest, leaving the hooded man alone. He grinned, stood up and began to create a camp-fire by throwing logs and twigs into a circle, then proceeded to raise his left hand and utter the words "Firebolt". Then a fire rune appeared in his hand and a bolt of fire blasted forward into the pile of wood, causing it to go up in flames calmly.

 _Hmm, I would like to see if someone would dare stand in our way, besides the CPUs of course, but their days are numbered. Our master will rise once more and we can then begin anew in this world._

 ***A double post today, just needed to get the story further along, now we have our first antagonists, huzzah! With these new villains and their 'unique' personalities I might have to wait and see if I need to change the rating after a while, who knows what might happen otherwise.*  
**


	7. Quests and Meetings

**Chapter 6: Quests and Meetings**

As soon as they entered the Guild, Brian was amazed at what he saw. Dozens of people were looking at pin-up boards to see what quests were available, others were talking to one another and some others were at checkouts and were either handing in a quest or were signing up to one. The Guild itself was rather big in the inside as pillars held up the roof in some places and the colour of the walls was a mix of purple and blue. As Brian and IF walked towards one of the boards a few Guild members made way for them, but it was for IF though.

"Hey IF, why do they do that?" he asked her.

"Hmm? What do you mean?" IF replied.

"Well, several people here are giving way to you, are you famous or something similar to that?"

"No, not really. I just have a good reputation in the Guild, I am called the 'Wind Walker of Gamindustri' after all."

Brian raised an eyebrow at the reply. "Hmm, so what do you actually do around here? With that type of title you'd have to be a spy, me thinks."

"Well, I suppose you're correct," responded IF with a shrug.

When the two of them arrived at a board they noticed a young girl staring at it; she had purple hair with a d-pad accessory in her hair, a purple and white dress that looked similar to Neptune's attire. In fact, Brian found her too similar to Neptune. The purple hair girl looked at them and smiled.

"Oh, hello there IF," she greeted.

"Good to see you too, Nepgear," replied IF.

 _Wait a moment, Nepgear? I think I remember someone mentioning that Neptune had a sister called Nepgear, so does this mean that is the CPU Candidate?_

Brian was cut out of his thoughts when he heard IF introduce Nepgear to him. "This is Blue, he's … a new resident of Planeptune, so to speak," IF said. Nepgear noticed the slight pause in her sentence but decided not to question it. She then looked at Brian with a nervous smile.

"Um … hello Blue, I'm Nepgear, I'm Neptune's sister, er … nice to meet you," she greeted nervously.

Brian sensed that it was going to get awkward soon so he had to wrap it up quickly. "Yep, I'm Blue, hello Nepgear. Anyway, what're looking at?"

"Oh, I'm just looking at a few of the quests that are available," she replied. IF took a glance at what Nepgear was concentrating on and found it peculiar; it was a search and report quest that requested for any information regarding the disappearances of several people, including four Guild members who hadn't returned from a monster hunting quest earlier in the morning, the reward was around 8,000 credits, obviously someone was rather worried abut it. Sensing that something wasn't right, IF took the request off the board and walked up to a counter, followed by a concerned Nepgear and an emotionless faced Brian. The girl at the counter noticed the group approaching her and faced them with a smile. She was wearing a dark purple suit and purple rimmed glasses, she had black hair that went to the length of her waist.

"Yes miss? What quest are you planning to complete, or are you asking a question? Either way I hope I can help you," she asked.

"Its a quest so don't worry," IF replied. Looking at the quest the woman nodded, loosing her smile in the process. "Ah yes, there's something strange going on over there, I've even heard that there has been less and less monsters over there as well. Even if it is good news I also dread about it, for not many people have been doing as much monster quests in Virtua Forest for a while now."

"I agree, it's suspicious," spoke Brian. IF nodded and had the quest checked out by the black haired woman. Afterwards the three of them left the Guild and made their way towards Virtua Forest. The black haired woman watched them leave before pulling out a phone and called someone. "Hey boss, there's three more from the Guild coming your way."

"…," the black haired woman listened to what her boss was saying.

"Yep, there's a purple haired girl who looks rather timid, then there was a brunette with an oversized blue and black coat, she's the smaller one of the lot and may be the most dangerous, and finally there's a boy who is the tallest, doesn't seem like a threat though."

"…," she listened once more to her boss had to say about the situation.

"Alright then boss, I'll inform you if there is anyone else who's dealing with a quest that involves Virtua Forest," she said with a smirk. She then heard various beeps, signalling that her boss had ended the call. Putting the phone away in her top pocket she got up and stretched her back out, not knowing that her conversation had been overheard by a certain hooded figure who had taken up a hiding spot in the ceiling.

 _Well that's one informant located at least, now to make sure that those three manage to stay alive._

He crouched walked through the ceiling until he slipped through the ceiling and out through the roof. Now that he was outside, he looked around to see if anyone had noticed him, and after thirty seconds he came to the conclusion that no one had noticed him he ran across the roof and jumped onto the roof of a nearby store, not even stopping to recover his breath. Instead he continue to run to the outskirts of the and towards Virtua Forest.

 _I hope I don't get there too late, though I'm sure I'll get there early anyway, but better safe than sorry._

-Around the Same Time in Planeptune's Basilicom-

"As you have heard, I'm having trouble in attempting to decipher what is going on," said Histoire.

Histoire was having a video chat with the other oracles of Gamindustri; Kei of Lastation, Mina of Lowee and Chika of Leanbox. Kei looked as if she was a male, but most people make that mistake the first time they see her, she had white hair that went to her neck in some cases and wore what appeared to be a business suit. Her face was expressionless when Histoire stopped talking.

"I agree that it is rather odd, especially how that boy, Blue, gave his description on what happened," she commented. "As for here we haven't encountered anything too unusual, except for the absence of monsters. That can be a good thing but from what I've heard from Miss Uni is that the Guild has nothing to do with that situation."

Histoire nodded. "It would mean that something or someone is dealing with all the monsters, but I would find that suspicious as one of the so-called comets was seen near Lastation."

"Not to mention another 'comet' being spotted around Lowee," spoke Mina. She had light blue hair that stretched down her back, she wore a short white dress under a red, long jacket that also looked like a robe worn open along with gold lining and buttons. She also had red glasses and a red graduates hat.

"Have you found anything related to that?" asked Histoire.

Mina shook her head. "Nothing at all I'm afraid. No trace, no sign, just nothing at all, it's as if it never existed."

"None of these comets better come to Leanbox then, I need my private time with my beloved Vert!" exclaimed Chika.

The other oracles sighed, they understood that Chika was … 'over protective' when it came to Vert, but it grew on them that it may be more of a burning obsession to have Vert all to herself. Chika wore a revealing black dress with long boots and gloves that end at her wrist along with a black neck piece with a white sphere in the centre that has a small green x in the centre. On both hips Chika wore black ribbon-cloths that have longer cloth pieces dangling from both sides with green sparkled colouring inside. She also had a black ribbon that was tied into her mint green hair.

"Chika, please take this seriously," sighed Histoire. "As far as we know the 'comets' are not a threat, that is until we uncover evidence surrounding the whole situation."

The oracles nodded. "I'll get some Guild members to scout the area outside Lastation to look for anything suspicious," said Kei.

"Same here," Mina said.

"Well, I suppose it wouldn't hurt to investigate the matter," said Chika.

"I'll keep an eye on Blue, I am sure he is connected to this in some way, even if he knows it or not," Histoire said.

With that done the meeting was adjourned and the video chat was cut. Histoire was left in her office and surrounded by piles of paperwork, all of which Neptune had refused to acknowledge. Histoire sighed in disbelief at the amount of work that she had to complete.

"I think I'll pay Neptune a visit and … convince her to look into this comet matter, most likely I'll have to tell her where to go though," she sighed as she left her office and made her way to Neptune's room.

-In Virtua Forest-

The hooded man put the phone away in his ragged clothing, stood up and walked down the track to find his hammer wielding comrade. He wasn't surprised at the whole situation, it was becoming clear to him that they could not stay in Virtua Forest for much longer.

 _They don't seem much of a threat, according to that informant, but I better tell that bloodthirsty man of the news. We will need to exercise caution now, we can't have too many people going 'missing' now can we?_

After several minutes of walking he found his comrade standing in a field surrounded by slime, from the look of the scene it would look like he had fought a few dogoos. "Seems like you had some fun," the hooded man said.

The hammer wielder turned around and grunted, he wasn't the most conversational of the four, unless the topic had to do with plans and killing.

"I have some news that you will be excited about," said the hooded man.

The hammer wielder raised an eyebrow. "Hmm? You sure about that?"

"Positive. There are three people coming to the forest very soon to look for the missing adventurers that you killed this morning, they don't know that yet but better safe than sorry. I presume you know what to do?"

The hammer wielder grinned with anticipation while nodding. "Break them."

 ***Finally, an incoming fight scene, I'm geared up for it! Oh, and thanks to those for taking the time to read, favourite, follow and review this.***


	8. First Blood

**Chapter 7: First Blood**

Brian, IF and Nepgear walked through Virtua Forest, wary for any sudden attacks, but to their surprise they found no monsters around the place.

"Where would they have gone?" asked IF.

Brian shrugged his shoulders. "Who knows, besides, I don't even know what these monster look like."

"Well, the most common type of monster in Virtua Forest is the Dogoo, damn slime beast," shuddered IF.

"Really, a slime beast?" asked Brian with a raised eyebrow.

Nepgear nodded. "Yeah, we've had some bad experiences with them before."

Brian decided not to delve too deep into that comment and decided to look around further. After a minute he came across a clearing and saw something up against a rock, he thought it looked similar to a sword.

"Hey IF, Nepgear, I think I found something here," he called to them.

The three of them arrived in the clearing and ran to the rock, and before them was not something that they were expecting at all. Large quantities of blood stained the rock and the grass, a broken sword was up against the same rock and shards of metal were abundant, Brian also saw a futuristic pistol lying in the grass, when he picked it up there was blood splattered on it and the barrel was dented. Negear became extremely tense at the scene before them.

"What … what kind of monster did this to whoever it was who died?"

"I don't think it was one person who was killed here," Brian said.

IF nodded. "There's too much blood, and it's all over the place. Could it have been an ancient dragon or a pack of Fernirs that did this?"

"I don't it was your average monster, and I won't question what an ancient dragon or fernir looks like," stated Brian. "Take a closer look at the carnage around you, look at the semi-destroyed weapons before you, and look at that tree." He then walked up to a knocked over tree and pointed at the various battle marks that it had acquired.

"What are you getting at?" asked Nepgear.

"I'm saying that who ever did this wasn't a monster, but a person," replied Brian. "I would also have to presume that it was the four adventurers who were killed here."

"Why would you presume that?" asked IF. "Other people travel in this forest as well you know."

Brian shrugged. "Call it gut feeling."

"Goodness … well then, let's head back, I'm not sure if I want to stay here for much longer," Nepgear said.

As the three of them prepared to leave the forest clearing they all heard the rustling of leaves and bushes, Brian glanced in the general direction, frowning at the spot. IF looked at him.

"Is something there?" she asked.

"Must be our imagination," replied Brian.

As they turned back and began to walk down the path the rustling sound began to get louder. Brian glanced back at it before drawing his sword; he was fortunate that he did. No sooner had he got his sword in his hand a person jumped out of the bushes and shout in a curdling voice.

" **Pounding Death!** "

Suddenly a war-hammer was smashed into Brian who barely managed to block it with his sword, but he was then sent hurdling into a tree, causing him to cry out in pain as he slid to the ground. IF brandished her Quatars while Nepgear unleashed her own sword, which looked like a futuristic sword/lightsaber with the letter 'N' embroidered into it. The stranger gripped his war-hammer with two hands and grinned at the two girls.

"You girls made the wrong choice coming here!" snarled the hammer wielder.

IF glared in anger at their enemy. He appeared to be an outlander of sorts, his attire contributed to that fact. The mere fact that he wore a fur coat with leather armour and a mixed leather and steel helmet hinted to her answer.

"Who the hell are you and why did you attack him?!" she yelled.

"I've been told to kill anyone who enters this forest, no need to be too angry," he replied coldly.

Nepgear was stunned at what she saw. "Wh-what was that attack?"

"Heh, it was my special move, it lets me gather energy in my weapon and when I hit someone that energy drives my foes back, your friend was 'unlucky' to be rather weak."

IF growled and then charged at the hammer wielder, when he swung his war-hammer in her direction she jumped over it and landed behind him, only to be grabbed by the hair and swung around into a tree face first.

"Too slow, little girl," taunted the hammer wielder.

" **Mirage Dance!** " shouted a voice behind him.

Before he could turn around various sword strikes made their mark on him, causing him to grimace with pain. He loosened his grip on IF and turned to look at the source of the attacks, and there before him stood Nepgear with a serious look on her face.

"Don't you dare hurt my friends!" she shouted.

"Amusing," commented the hammer wielder. He then charged at Nepgear with a blood curdling yell when something hit him in his right arm, causing him to stop the attack and jump away. When he looked down at his arm he noticed a throwing knife in his arm and blood was flowing down from the wound, he growled and looked at the source of the attack, there stood Brian with two more throwing knives in his hands and a look of pure rage in his face.

"I ain't done with you yet!" Brian yelled.

Then a beam of light enveloped around Nepgear and after the light disappeared there stood a woman with power symbols in her eyes, a white jumpsuit/swimsuit and a larger sword in her hands, IF got off the ground and smirked at the woman.

"About time you transformed Nepgear," she said.

Nepgear/Purple Sister nodded and stared at the hammer wielder. "I don't know why you are attacking use, but I will protect everyone here."

As the hammer wielder charged at Purple Sister two throwing knives were thrown at him, one failed to hit but the other hit its target in the leg, still the hammer wielder charged and began to swing his weapon around, until IF shouted, " **Demonic Inferno!** " The hammer wielder was then engulfed in fire. Brian, IF and Purple Sister then regrouped and looked at the scorched ground while taking glances at each other. Brian was clutching his left arm and bloodied scratches could be seen along his left hand hand face, IF had blood coming out of her nose along with a few scratches while Purple Sister was unscathed.

"Did we get him?" asked Brian.

"I hope so," replied IF. "It could have knocked him out or at the very least rendered him unable to battle further."

The smoke and dirt cleared, revealing that the hammer wielder wasn't there. "What the hell? Where did he go?" asked Brian.

" **Hammer of Fury!** " shouted a voice from a tree. Suddenly the hammer wielder jumped from a tree and smashed his hammer into the ground, cracks formed in the ground and blasts of fire erupted along with a blast that sent everyone flying away from their positions. Brian was sent sliding across the ground, IF smashed into a tree while Nepgear also smashed into another tree but was able to get up first.

"Heh, I'm impressed with you, transforming girl," said the hammer wielder. "It would normally take a few minutes for anyone to get back up."

"That is because she is not a human, but a CPU," remarked a voice from a nearby tree. As soon as it finished talking a person jumped to the ground and stood next to the hammer wielder. "Well, technically speaking she is a CPU Candidate." It was the hooded man that had the twisted grin and dark yellow eyes.

"CPU Candidate? The hell is that?" asked the hammer wielder.

"I thought I went through that with you a day or two before," sighed the hooded man. "No matter, you were taking it a bit to easy for them I noticed, you should hurry it up before that Candidate's older sister gets wind of what's going on."

"Then you can take care of the boy, the girls are mine to deal with."

The hooded man nodded, drew his sword and walked up to Brian while the hammer wielder charged at Purple Sister. The two of them exchanged blows, neither of them getting hit until the hammer wielder ducked Purple S blow and then swung his war-hammer towards her legs, causing her to jump. Then the hammer wielder launched forward and grabbed her by the throat. "Got you now!"

As Purple Sister struggled to get herself free IF had gotten of the ground and noticed the situation; near her were Purple Sister and the hammer wielder who had her in a death lock and further ahead was the hooded man and Brian, who had managed to get back on his feet. IF glanced at Nepgear before running to her.

 _Don't you dare die on us Blue!_

As Brian stood up and held his sword in front of him the hooded man calmly walked up to him. "Do you really think that you can defeat us easily? Your friends are handling the situation better than you."

"Grr … shut up!"

Brian slashed at the hooded man who parred with his sword, sending sparks around the place. Brian glanced at the hooded man who appeared to be grinning even more now. " **Lightning Rain!** " the hooded man shouted.

The hooded man shoved Brian away and raised his sword to the air and created a magic rune which sent forth lightning, which struck the ground around Brian, some lightning bolts even managed to hit him. As Brian yelled in pain as the lighting hit him the hooded man lowered his sword, ending his special attack. Brian was scorched and fell to his knees, gasping for air.

"How pitiful, and you dare hold a sword in the first place?" taunted the hooded man. He then swung his sword into Brian's chest, the sickening crack of bones could be heard as the hooded man withdrew his sword and then stabbed Brian with a gleeful look. Brian couldn't handle the mountain of pain that was occurring and he yelled at the top of his lungs. "AARRRRRGGGGHHHHH!"

IF had been hit on the face with the handle of the war-hammer and been thrown to the ground when she heard Brian yelling, she looked at him and saw what was happening. "NO! Damn it!" she cried out.

" **Mirage Dance!** " Purple Sister shouted again and she attacked the hammer wielder in the chest with her attacks, sending him to the ground and he coughed up blood. "What the bloody hell?!"

Purple Sister's attention was then snatched by Brian's yelling and seeing IF running towards him. As Nepgear began to run towards them to help she heard the hammer wielder stand up and snarl at her. "Where do you think you're going, bitch?! **Pounding Death!** "

As he gathered energy into his war-hammer and then swung his weapon at Purple Sister, she knew that she couldn't be able to block it in time. But she wasn't expecting a sword to block the attack at all when she heard someone say " **Wraith Blade!** ", the attack was stopped and a crater had appeared. Standing next to her was a hooded man in a black coat and scarf with a leather armoured vest with chain mail and dull pants while his eyes flared blue and red, but she was quite surprised when she looked at the sword. It didn't look like any type of metal, instead it glowed in a ghostly blue and the design didn't look like any normal sword from Gamindustri, the pummel of the hilt had a circular feature to it while the rest of the hilt to the blade didn't look like much but it had a straight piece of supposed ghostly metal to it when it reached the blade, the cross guard was straight but short, the blade itself might have appeared to have been steel.

"Tch, not today!" growled the stranger.

The hammer wielder looked at the stranger and then his eyes went wide and he went pale. "Oh come on, seriously? It just had to be you of all people!"

"Glad you still remember me, even though it's been several days already."

"Just shut up and die!"

The two of them jumped back and glared at one another before charging and striking each others weapons. Nepgear could only watch the spectacle before her when a shadow from above came over her. "Are you alright, Nep Jr?"

Purple Sister looked up and saw Neptune in Purple Heart form. She wore a black and purple bodysuit and her hair had grown, thus the two braids down her back. Her chest had also increased with size and a pair of 'wings' floated from her back. She appeared to be carrying Compa who looked a little frightened. "Can you put me down now, Nep-Nep?"

"Sure thing." Neptune/Purple Heart set Compa on the ground and looked at Brian, who had fallen on the ground on his back while IF and the hooded man duelled each other. "I'm helping Iffy, go and take care of Blue now Compa."

Compa nodded and ran over to Brian, who was dribbling blood from his mouth as even more blood ran over his clothes from his chest. "Don't die on us Blue-Blue!" cried Compa.

The hooded man noticed Compa by Brian and then glanced at the hammer wielder, who was being bested by another competitor, which the hooded man recognised. "Damn this, how did he get here?!"

IF was about to run towards the hooded man when they both heard someone shout " **Cross Combination!** ", then Neptune lunged forward and attacked the hooded man with her special attack, sending him spiralling into a nearby tree. As he got back on the ground he coughed up some blood.

 _This is getting ridiculous, first there was a CPU Candidate, then 'he' appeared and now the main CPU is here. He have to get out of here!_

The hammer wielder backed off until he reached the hooded man. "Damn it, we're outnumbered here!" the hammer wielder shouted.

"You don't say?!" replied the hooded man in a sarcastic tone.

"Alright then, you are you two?" asked Purple Heart in a serious tone. "And why were you attacking them?"

"That is for us to know and you to find out, if you can," replied the hooded man. "Now, if you excuse us, we're leaving."

"Not if I can stop you!" yelled IF.

"How touching to see that you care for your useless friend, his time has ended, it would have been nicer if he never meddled in your affairs," remarked the hooded man. "But I must ask this, why are you here, Wraith?!"

The stranger, aptly named 'Wraith', stared at the two enemies before him, his eyes glowing blue and red fiercely. "Because I must."

"Enough of this," spoke Purple Heart. "Time to end this."

As Purple Heart charged at the hooded man and the hammer wielder a rune appeared in the air above the group. " **Obliterating Skies!** " shouted a calm voice nearby. Suddenly the air above them began to rain huge boulders covered in fire.

"Everyone scatter!" shouted Wraith.

As the group scattered the newcomer approached the hooded man and the hammer wielder. The newcomer was a woman who had grey hair, blue eyes and wore what appeared to be a red and blue cape with black lining, she also wore a steel breastplate with various battle markings and what looked like a grey tunic, she had steel gauntlets that reached her elbows, black pants and steel leggings, she also had a pouch attached to her left waist. She was holding a trident in her right hand.

"How long have you two been here?" she asked.

"How 'bout a hello next time, you damn stoic woman," replied the hammer wielder. The stoic woman's special attack was still occurring.

"We have to go, now!" yelled the hooded man.

The stoic woman nodded and the three of them ran into the forest just as the attack subsided. Purple Heart emerged and couldn't see the three opponents, with a saddened sigh she looked at the ground.

"What the heck was that all about?" she asked no one in particular.

Wraith walked up next to her and stared at the sky. "That is what Gamindustri will have to endure for a while now. For the moment you should get your friend to a hospital, I doubt that nurse friend of yours can hold back the lose of blood he is enduring."

"Poor Blue, what did he ever do to deserve that?" she asked him in a deeply saddened tone.

"Bad luck, that's all," replied Wraith. "Now I too must get going." As he began to walk away he heard someone trying to start a 'conversation' with him.

"Hey, you! Where do you think you're going?" asked IF. Wraith turned around and saw that IF was failing to hold back her tears while Compa was still attempting to clean Brian up.

"I'm leaving, but don't you worry, he'll live to see another day," he responded.

"Wh-who are you?" asked Purple Sister.

"I'm known as The Wraith or just Wraith, it is the title I go by now."

IF looked at him suspiciously while he began to walk away again. "Will we ever meet again?" she asked.

"Possibly," he answered. He then sprinted into the forest, but what surprised IF, Purple Heart and Purple Sister was that when he sprinted it would look as if he turned bluish and that made him faster. He disappeared into the undergrowth in a few seconds, leaving the group to look on in awe or shock. Purple Heart walked up to unconscious Brian and picked him up bridal style, tears formed up in her eyes as she looked at him.

"I'll see you three in the hospital, just let Histoire know what happened," she said before she flew into the air and with max speed she made her way to Planeptune.

"Hang in there Blue, you'll be alright, I promise. Just stay alive!"


	9. The Wraith

**Chapter 8: The Wraith**

As the moon settled over Gamindustri a lone figure walked down an empty street in the Planeptune city, he looked around him before turning right into an alleyway and stopped at a wooden door with a rusty doorknob, he pulled out a key and unlocked the door, when he entered he closed and locked the door behind him. He now stood in a mostly empty room that had a bed, several cardboard boxes, a desk and a fold-up chair. In the room nearby was a shower and a toilet which looked as if it had seen better days. Wraith sighed and sat down on the chair before taking off his hood, coat, scarf and boots, he then set them down on the cardboard box next to him. He next removed his leather and chain mail armour and then fell onto the bed, causing it to creak. His thoughts travelled to the incident during the afternoon after he had returned from the forest.

-Flashback-

"Well now they know I'm here, and a darn pity about that," he said to himself as he crouched walked along the roof of the Guild. "Still, at least I know how to limit their range of information."

He then watched a certain person leave the Guild, it was the same woman with the purple hair and glasses who was an informant of the hooded man, or as Wraith would like to call him, 'The Right Hand of Agandur' or just 'Agandur's Right Hand'.

The informant walked down a street an into an alleyway, stopping to look at her phone.

 _Now it's time to 'talk'._

Wraith jumped down from the roof and landed behind her, catching her off guard as she realised there was someone standing behind her. "What the hell? Who're you?"

"An old 'friend' of your boss," he replied.

She frowned at him and backed off a bit. "So you know of him then? Just who are you?"

Wraith walked slowly towards her as she backed up into a corner, she looked terrified as she stared at his eyes. "Who are you? What are you?" she asked again.

"I'm mildly surprised that your boss, the 'Right Hand of Agandur', hasn't mentioned me to you before," he said coldly. "Never mind, I am The Wraith and I am here to make sure that no one else is harmed by that menace!"

"B-b-but why me?! Why hurt me?! I'm just an informant not a warrior!"

Wraith began to raise his right hand near her head. "It is because you are an informant that you must … suffer. If you hadn't given him the information from the Guild then no one would have died."

She could only stand still as she watched Wraith lower his hand until it nearly touched her face. "Wh-what are you going to do?"

"I'm going to find out what you know about anything regarding the 'Right Hand of Agandur' and the rest of the Dark Captains. Don't worry, it'll only hurt for a bit and who knows, maybe you'll come out of it unscathed, or perhaps alive, but I mainly want to do this for a more personal reason." He then lowered his scarf and let the informant gaze at his face.

"What the ... how? How is that possible?" she asked in disbelief.

"Science bitch." He then grabbed her face and suddenly he channelled his power into her brain as he began to interrogate her very mind, her eyes turned ghostly blue as she was powerless to stop him. Her screams became dull and void as the process continued painfully.

-End of Flashback-

"Didn't get much info out of her, but at least she won't be informing him about people entering the Virtua Forest any more because ... well ... she's dead," he said to himself.

He rubbed his chin and noticed that he was growing a beard, he chuckled at the thought of him having a beard.

 _Never occurred to me that I was growing one, well I better get shaving if I want to at least look presentable, even if I not showing anyone my face._

He rummaged through his pockets and various cardboard boxes for several minutes before coming to the conclusion that he didn't have any sort of shaving materials.

"Dangit, well I suppose I'll keep it, but I better do something about my hair, it's starting to grow longer. I think I'll worry about it in the morning."

Sighing, he fell back onto the bed and started to fall asleep.

-Dream-

The night was long and painful, the enemy soldiers kept up the offensive, scaling the outer walls and smashing their way into the centre of the fortress. The defensive garrison were outnumbered and their morale was failing them, many had already died in the defence and the inner walls were close to falling under enemy control. Upon the centre of the inner wall stood a man clad in chain mail and leather armour, a black coat, a steel helmet and a black scarf over his mouth, He was holding a ghost-like sword in his right hand, this was The Wraith. His eyes flared between blue and red as he looked over the battle before him and the garrison he was helping; it was an appalling sight. He turned around and saw a figure clad in scale steel armour and was carrying a large two-handed axe.

"Time to die!" he yelled as he charged.

Wraith stepped aside and swung his sword at the enemy before him. " **Wraith Blade!** "

His sword collided with his foe's neck, slicing the head off his body. As Wraith looked further down the battlements he saw several of his troops having trouble with the enemy, he put away his broken sword and gripped his ghost sword into hands before charging forward.

He raced behind one of them and stabbed him in the head before swinging his left arm into the face of another opponent, the ghostly blue energy sent him off the battlements and he plummeted to his death. Next Wraith dislodged his sword and parred what seemed to be an enemy captain, he had similar steel scale armour but had an iron crest over his helmet thus signifying his rank.

"You fight well, it would have been better if you joined us you know," he enemy officer stated as the two of them continued to parry.

"I would never have joined the Dark Lord and be part of his plan of world domination!"

"Too bad, I'm sure the 'Right Hand' would have been pleased, but now it's time for you to finally die!"

The enemy officer swung his sword at Wraith while clenching his fist in an attempt to hit him, Wraith had other plans though as he ducked and jumped to the left and cut off his enemies right hand. The enemy officer yelled in agony as he grabbed his the now bloodied stump where his right hand had once been, Wraith then kicked his opponent in the face and broke his nose before stabbing him through the back of the neck, the officer coughed up a large amount of blood as he died.

Wraith tore his sword from the enemy corpse and looked over the battlefield once more; it still looked like hell. How could they win against the forces of darkness? He didn't have an answer to that. Suddenly he saw a rune in the skies and a voice cry out " **Obliterating Skies!** " and then boulders covered in flames dropped on the fortress. Wraith down on the ground level and saw one of the Dark Captains, it was the woman with the trident, grey hair and the steel armour.

"Severia, most stoic of the Dark Captains," he murmured.

He then saw a flaming boulder fly out of the skies and made it's way towards Wraith, as it was about to hit him all vision became static.

-End of Dream-

"GAAAHH!"

Wraith sat up on his bed covered in sweat, he looked around him and saw that he was still in his shanty room. He sighed in relief. "Whew, it was all a dream, or a nightmare. But I know it did happen, I was there. Damn these war frights."

He looked at the window and saw that it was still dark outside but he had no way of telling what the time was, so he laid back on the bed and closed his eyes once more.

 _War … most times it is completely worthless, but at other times it is worth fighting, no matter the cost. Now then, what is my next move? I'm not sure where the Dark Captains are right now and only three of them have been seen, this is getting annoying. This is completely tiring, even for a God like myself._

 ***Now we finally get a bit more background info on Wraith, it ain't much but it builds up over the next several chapters. And we also get one of the names for the Dark Captains, huzzah!***


	10. Recovery Time - Part 1

**Chapter 9: Recovery Time – Part 1**

"Will he be alright?" asked Neptune, who had de-transformed.

"He's in critical condition, so I cannot say whether he'll live just yet, but I'll do whatever I can to help," replied a doctor.

IF nodded. "Alright then, is he allowed to have visitors?"

The doctor nodded. "He can, as long as you don't disturb him, I fear he'll be unconscious for a few days though."

"How long will he be kept here?" IF asked.

"I would recommend that he stay here for a few weeks before he can get back into action, after all, he only managed to survive by a fraction of a chance, he even nearly died during the operation."

"Wait a second..." mumbled Neptune. She then let out a loud gasp. "That means he won't be eating any pudding with me for weeks!"

"Really?! That's what you're worried about Nep?!" shouted IF.

"Well of course it's a problem, pudding tastes utterly splendid if you eat it with loads of people," explained Neptune. "Damn you author! Why did you have to do this?!"

"Um, sister … I think IF is trying to say that you should be more worried about Blue's condition, he did almost die," said Nepgear.

"Well yeah I know that, but I'm also concerned for his diet, he can't spend weeks living off hospital food you know."

The doctor face-palmed and shook his head. "Well if you're that insistent then I suppose I can allow you to give him some of this pudding when you speak to him, but only when he has sufficiently recovered."

"Okey-dokey! I'll get prepared for a feast," Neptune exclaimed.

"Baring any more antics from Neptune, is it possible for us to visit Blue at the moment?" asked IF.

"I suppose it wouldn't hurt, just remember to keep quiet around him."

The group nodded and entered Brian's room, it looked peaceful enough as they gazed the white and lavender walls, in the right corner of the room was a bed covered in white sheets and laying in it was Brian. He had a life supporter attached to him and several bandages could be seen on his left arm, head and chest. From what they could tell he was breathing slowly.

"Do you think he'll live?" asked Nepgear.

Compa nodded. "He will Ge-Ge, I was there at the operation and made sure that he would survive."

"Not to mention that Wraith said he would live," IF mentioned. "But how would he know that just from looking at a bloodied body?"

"Ah who cares, so as long he can wake up and eat some pudding with us!" said Neptune with a smile.

"Have you ever considered that he might not like pudding Neptune?" IF asked.

"Of course he won't hate pudding, it's the most delicious and greatest dish that has ever been created, even the author likes it," replied Neptune.

Compa walked up to the small desk next to the bed and put Brian's History of Rome book on it. "He'll need to do something after he wakes up," she stated.

"Well he seems to be alright so I think it's best that we leave now," said Nepgear. "We don't want to disturb him."

IF and Neptune walked up to the bed and while looked at Brian Neptune rubbed his hair. "You're an idiot Blue, but a brave idiot" said IF before leaving the room with Compa. Nepgear was about to leave the room before looking at her older sister.

"Hey Neptune, are you alright? If not then we can go and get some pudding together," she asked.

Neptune nodded slowly. "I'm fine, but we barely know Blue and he almost died during that fight, I don't want anyone to die. I want to find out who those guys were and why they wanted to kill all of you." She sounded quite upset.

Nepgear walked up to Neptune and patted her head. "If it makes you feel any better, we can visit him any day you like."

Neptune looked up at her younger sister and nodded. "Yeah, that'll be good. Now, you promised me some pudding so you better get me some."

"Alright then, come on." The two of them walked out of Brian's room and left the hospital, leaving him alone to rest.

-Somewhere outside Planeptune-

"Grr, how the hell did The Wraith know that we would be there?!" yelled the hammer wielder.

The three of the four Dark Captains had taken refuge in an abandoned farmhouse and were nursing their wounds while agitating themselves about the whole affair.

"Don't you two have an answer this time? I'm impressed," snarled the hammer wielder after waiting for a minute for a reply to his question.

"Don't be a smart ass, it just doesn't suit you," responded the stoic woman, Severia.

The hammer wielder glared at Severia before the hooded man, aka 'Agandur's Right Hand', sighed and stood between them. His hood was thrown back onto his back and all could see his bald head with various burn marks on it that ran down his head.

"Will the two of you just shut up already?" It is a damn pity for us that The Wraith had to show up but we have to persevere through this."

The hammer wielder sighed and punched the nearby wall and created a large crack in the wall. "So what do we do now?" he asked.

"We'll just have to wait until 'he' shows up," replied Agandur's Right Hand.

The hammer wielder shuddered, whether out of fear or disgust. "Why do we have to wait for him? Severia managed to get here within a few days but we still have to sit on our butts and bloody wait!"

"Will you just shut up, Lothar the Bloodthirsty?" asked Agandur's Right Hand in a not so calm voice. "You're becoming a real pain you know that?"

The hammer wielder, aptly named Lothar, glared at Agandur's Right Hand. "Fine, whatever. So what do we do next? We don't exactly have a plan you know."

"We must wait for the last one to arrive, then we will start the next phase of our plan," replied Agandur's Right Hand.

"And what, pray tell, is this plan of yours?"

"It would be better to explain it in full detail once we have regrouped."

Severia grabbed her trident and walked to the broken wooden door, glancing back at her two companions. "I'm going on patrol, I'll be back within an hour."

Agandur's Right Hand nodded and she left the ruined building, leaving the two men alone and rather bored. Lothar grunted as he paced around the place, swinging his war-hammer around until it collided with a wall, smashing a large hole in it.

"Seriously? This place is already falling apart, don't make it collapse on top of us," remarked Agandur's Right Hand.

"I can help it if I'm bored!"

"This is going to be a long wait," sighed Agandur's Right Hand as Lothar kept swinging his weapon around the room.

-Somewhere in a dream-

Brian stood on a bloodied ground that was piled up with corpses, all of them were mutilated and mangled up. He could only stare at them as smoke rose from the ruined buildings around him, the sky was red as if it was on fire but there was no sounds of people, no sounds of music, no sound at all, everything was mute.

Brian couldn't move even if he tried his best to do so, it felt as if he was glued to the ground and left for dead. He looked around and saw a large tower nearby, but what freaked him out was the fact that he recognised it; it was the Planeptune Basilicom.

 _So I'm in Planeptune then? This doesn't make sense though, this can't be real … yet it feels real. Too real._

As he looked away he saw something, or rather someone, he glanced at the location and he felt his heart skip a beat. He was looking at the bloodied corpse of Neptune. Nearby was the body of Nepgear swiftly followed by IF, Compa and Histoire. There were also several other bodies near them that Brian didn't recognise, but they all seemed to pull strings on his heart, as if he should either know them or they were important somehow.

 _What the hell is happening?! This can't be happening! What sort of nightmare is this?!_

He then felt a chill go down his spine as he looked at the bodies before him, his hands began to twitch violently. He looked up at the balcony of the Basilicom and saw someone, someone he recognised; it was Agandur's Right Hand. He appeared to be engulfed in a bright blue light and was also was covered in a black mist, he seemed to disappear into the mist until a flash occurred and Brian was left staring at a black, red and dark blue mist and in the centre was a dark grey helmet that was covered in thick steel, only the eye pieces and various slits where the mouth should be were left uncovered, a crude steel spiked crown was atop the helmet.

Brian was then lifted off from the ground and was hurdled towards the mist until his face almost touched the helmet, then he looked into the eyes and noticed something staring back at him with pure flaring red eyes.

"W-wh-who are y-you?" asked Brian with terror in his voice.

The 'thing' in front of him didn't utter a word, instead the mist engulfed Brian and spread across his body, when he opened his mouth to breathe some of the mist flew into his mouth and into his body, causing him to have a spasm. He began to black out until everything disappeared around him and he was surrounded by nothing but a dark void. Then a voice was heard.

"That will come to pass if you should fail in your task," it said. "You must prevent that to happen at any cost to yourself."

"Wh-what in Jupiter's name are you? And where are you?"

"I am a person, so to speak. And as to where I am … that is unimportant, but I'm sure you will find me eventually in Gamindustri somewhere. Now, it is time for you to wake up. Good luck, Brian."

The voice left the void and the mist began to engulf Brian once more, he yelled and flailed around but nothing would stop it. His vision then began to darken and everything was gone.

 ***Hey folks how's it going? I'm attempting to spice things up a bit, and yes the nightmare that our protag had is very important to the story. Leave a review if you want to see something happen in the story or just have general advice about something then go ahead and do so. See ya next time***


	11. Recovery Time - Part 2

**Chapter 10: Recovery Time – Part 2**

"GAAAHHH!"

Brian woke up from his nightmare and sat up in a panic, he heard startled voices to his right but he couldn't see who it was but there was several of them from what he could hear.

"Goodness Blue, that was a little frightening," said one voice. Brian believed that belonged to Nepgear.

"The heck was that for?! Are you trying to give us a heart attack or what?" asked another voice. This one he didn't recognise but it sounded as if it was a she, and 'she' sounded rather annoyed.

"You big dummy! You scared Rom!" shouted another voice. It seemed as if it was another girl, but quite a younger one at that, plus she sounded like a loud kid.

"Uh-huh, that was a little scary," said yet another voice. This one sounded more low-key than the others, Brian could tell that it belonged to a rather young girl.

 _Well, I think that last one was a 'Rom' if I am not mistaken from what that previous girl said._

"Hey, can you talk? You're not very responsive you know," asked the girl with the serious tone.

"If you must know my vision hasn't returned yet, so pipe down!" replied Brian in a not-so-happy voice.

"Goodness … that was uncalled for Blue, um … sorry," said Nepgear.

"Don't blame yourself for that, but this guy is completely rude. How are you even friends with him?" spoke the serious toned girl.

"Um, we barely know each other so I don't think we're friends just yet."

Brian waved his hands in front of him before rubbing his eyes in an attempt to see what was around him, and it appeared to be working. He continued to ignore the voices of the girls near him as he attempted to regain his sight.

"Hey, are you even listening to us?" asked the serious girl.

"I don't think he is. Let's use this to get his attention," suggested the loud girl.

Brian began to see what was around him after a few seconds, it appeared he was in a hospital room from what he could tell. Before he looked to his right something hard slammed into the right side of his head that sent him smashing into the wall and rendered him an agonising pain in his head. He looked on his bed and found the source of the flying object; his history book.

"Who threw this at me with such force?" Brian asked in a tone that was too calm to be sane.

"That would be me!" answered the loud girl.

Brian looked over to his right and saw four girls standing around near his bed, one he recognised at Nepgear but the other three he definitely didn't know. There was a girl with black hair with two twin tails on either side of her head with black ribbons, she had dark red eyes and wore a short black dress with white and grey lining, a black and grey collar, black sleeves with the shoulders uncovered and black boots that reached her knees. Then there were the other two girls who Brian thought, correctly, were twins. Both wore a winter jacket over plain grey and white overall dress while the jacket appeared to have puffed sleeves and a frilled centre part with many golden buttons, a collar with a big bow and six puffballs were on the centre of the jacket. They both wore the same hat as each other which Brian found it hard to describe. One notable difference between the two outfits was colour. The one on the left had red on her clothes and had long brown hair while the other had blue on her clothes but had short brown hair.

"My name is Uni, don't forget it," greeted the girl in the black dress.

"I'm Ram," said the girl in the red coloured jacket. "And this is my twin sister Rom."

"Um … hi, it's nice to meet you," Rom said in a shy tone.

"Um, good to meet you … I suppose. Anyway, why did you throw it at me, pray tell?" Brian asked Ram, his voice becoming an insane calm tone again.

"To get your attention of course!" beamed Ram.

Unlike Ram the rest of the girls had started to get a little crept out by Brian's tone, it even made Rom hide behind her twin sister. "Um, goodness … Blue, I think you're starting to scare us," Nepgear pointed out to Brian.

"Well it ain't my fault if someone had the idea to throw my only damn book in this dimension at my freaking head!" shouted Brian. Suddenly he felt something go through his chest, it was pain and it was around where he had been slashed and stabbed.

He clenched shut his mouth shut and bit his lower lip as the pain jolted through his chest, he grabbed a hold on the bed frame and breathed in and out slowly, attempting to calm the pain away. When it finally subsided he looked back at the four girls and noticed that they had a concerned look on their faces.

"Try and take it easy Blue, please," pleaded Nepgear. "Neptune won't handle it well if she hears you're still in pain."

Brian nodded and looked over at Uni who appeared to have a worried expression and an uncaring look plastered on her face. He then looked down at the bed he was in and sighed.

 _I guess I was a bit of a jerk just because she was just a little bit serious, I suppose I can apologise to her before Ram._

"Um … sorry about going off at you earlier Uni, I didn't mean any harm towards you," apologised Brian.

"Well, I suppose I can accept your apology this one time, but I won't be so forgiving if it happens again," she replied. Brian chuckled to himself at her reply.

"As for you two," he said as he looked at Rom and Ram. "Sorry about the little misunderstanding."

"Meh who cares about that, but you better get well soon so we can play," said Ram with a smile.

"Uh-huh, do get better please," said Rom in a quite voice.

"Get better will you? I-its not as if I'm co-concerned about you or anything, its just that you need to get out of bed at some point and walk around again," stammered Uni.

 _I see what Uni's personality is; a tsundere. I'm not going to complain about that just yet, but it'll take me a while to get used to it, I can feel it. But I think I'll have a little bit if fun first.  
_

"Well then, may I ask why you lot are worried about my current state?" asked Brian. "Excluding Uni of course."

"Hey! What do you mean by that?" Uni asked.

"You said that you weren't concerned, unlike the other three, so I excluded you from my question," replied Brian in a matter-of-fact tone.

"You didn't have to word it like that," pouted Uni as she looked away from him.

"Well, to answer your question Blue, we've been visiting you for a while now," Nepgear responded. "My friends started to come along with me after the fourth day you were here."

Brian nodded as he looked at a nearby wall. "A good a reason as any, I suppose. Wait, how long was I here for?"

"You've been unconscious for a week now, probably due to the amount of damage you took and the operation itself," replied Nepgear.

Brian didn't know how to respond to what he had just heard, instead he said the only thing that came to his mind. "Oh."

 _Seriously, a week? Could've been worse I suppose. Wait a tick, what was I like when I was asleep during that whole time, especially just before I woke up? And where's Neptune, IF and Compa for that matter?_

"Um … sorry to ask this, but what was I like when I was asleep for the week?" Brian asked the group.

"Well, you seemed quite peaceful when you were resting, Neptune couldn't help it when she saw you sleeping peacefully so she took pictures of you to show the other goddesses … and maybe embarrass you when you got out," answered Nepgear hesitantly. "My sister isn't here right now because she's being … held up by Histoire."

Brian clicked his tongue with a hint of annoyance. "Now I'll know what to do when I get out of here. By the way, where are IF and Compa?"

"IF has been running some missions with the Guild to track down our attackers," Nepgear replied. "She hasn't found any leads so far. As for Compa, she's working part time here so she'll be held up by other patients, but they have been visiting you for a while now though."

Suddenly a though came to his mind, one that was troubling him for the entire time he woke up.

 _Who was that other guy, the one with the flaring blue and red eyes?_

"Who was he, the one with those strange eyes?" Brian asked Nepgear.

"Um, I think he was called The Wraith, but I'm not sure why. He was rather scary even if he did save me," replied Nepgear.

"I wouldn't trust this 'Wraith' if I were you Nepgear," commented Uni. "Even if he did managed to save you from being harmed you shouldn't trust him, the way you described his appearance is not only spooky but also suspicious."

"So he's a bad guy then?" asked Ram.

"Scary bad guy?" Rom asked in her shy voice.

"Well, I would have counted him as one of the attackers if he didn't block their attacks," said Nepgear. "But I'm sure he isn't that bad."

"Oh really? Why is he here then and why did he appear when they attacked you?" Uni questioned. "If you bumped into him again just remember that I told you not to trust him, especially if he has those weird eyes."

"Well at any rate, um … thanks for dropping by," Brian said to them with a little smile growing on his face. It was obvious to the girls that he wasn't used to this type of attention.

"No worries, I hope you get better soon," replied Nepgear.

"Yeah, you take care of yourself," said Uni.

"Bye for now dummy!," shouted Ram energetically.

"Uh-huh … please take care," spoke Rom.

Brian nodded to them as they left his hospital room, leaving him alone once again. After several minutes in silence he sighed and got out of his bed, almost falling to the floor in the attempt to stand on his two feet. He grabbed hold on the desk and saw his book as well as the clothes he wore during the attack, they were all patched up and his hat was on top of the pile with his boots set down next to them. With a little difficulty, due to the stings of pain that occurred in his chest, he managed to get back into his clothes, put on his boots, trench coat and his hat before attempting to look for his sword, throwing knives and sharpening stone. After looking for over two minutes he concluded that they must be stored in Compa's house or the Basilicom.

 _I won't worry about that right now, I'm sure that there would be a sword I can use where I'm going._

Brian grabbed his book and put the object in a large pocket in his coat, he then opened the door and peeked outside, making sure that there was no one around, feeling confident that there was nobody in sight he closed the door behind him and walked down the corridors, evading the gazes of nurses and doctors in case they recognised him.

 _I know that the girls won't forgive me for this, but I need answers as soon as possible, my nightmare was more than just that, it was a vision of what may come. Now that I think about it … Uni, Rom and Ram were also dead in the nightmare. This gets even more confusing!_

As he made his way outside the hospital he heard someone calling out to him from behind, he turned around and saw a nurse with a confused face.

"What are you doing out of bed? The doctor said you needed at least two weeks before you are dismissed from the hospital," she stated.

"I'm doing this because I need answers," replied Brian before leaving the hospital grounds.

The nurse was left in the reception area in confusion, unable to understand what Brian had told her, It didn't take long for her to call the doctor who looked after Brian and inform him about his sudden departure. When the doctor was informed of the news he knew of one thing; the CPUs and CPU Candidates were not going to be happy about this.


	12. An Ancient Prophecy

**Chapter 11: An Ancient Prophecy**

"… and that is what it means to be a CPU," Histoire finished explaining to Neptune.

Neptune was sitting on her couch with a depressed look on her face as she had to listen to Histoire, but when she finally stopped her lecture Neptune suddenly put her happy face back on.

"Yeah you're totally right Histy, but I got quite an appetite after that so I'm gonna get me a pudding," stated Neptune as she managed to get onto her feet.

"It is utterly clear that you didn't even listen to what I said!" shouted Histoire.

"You should leave her be Histoire and take a few weeks off, she'll then learn it the hard way," suggested a voice that came from a woman that was sitting on a nearby chair.

The voice belonged to a pale-fair skinned girl with very long black hair about waist length, worn up in long pigtails with black and blue ribbons, her bangs appeared to be neatly combed while her eyes were red. She wore a dark blue, white and red dress that had a small amount of gold lining and buttons, the dress part covers a red with black spiked lining cloth while the breast part is white.

"I couldn't be able to do that Noire, I would be afraid for the future of Planeptune if I was gone for a short while," replied Histoire.

Noire shrugged in response. "I still think it would help Neptune out, not that I'm concerned about her or anything."

Ignoring the conversation that was occuring Neptune skipped to the fridge and pulled out a pudding. "Ahhh … sweet pudding sweet pudding, you're all mine to eat," sang Neptune terribly.

"If you're going to sing in that terrible voice do it somewhere else," said an emotionless voice. The voice came from a woman, or girl as many people found it confusing, that wore a big white cap with light blue ruffles, a white dress with dark brown lining with markings on it and light coloured brown fur sleeves. She had sandy-brown hair, blue eyes and what Neptune called a 'doll face'. She was sitting on a chair reading a book.

"Aww is Blanc jealous of my great singing voice?" teased Neptune.

"No I'm not jealous, but I'm concerned that I will become deaf if you keep singing," responded Blanc.

"It just needs a touch of refinement before it is truly a song," spoke another voice from a different part of the room. It was a woman who had blonde hair that went down her back while her bangs covered her forehead, she also had blue eyes. She wore an emerald green dress with gold markings, light green and white gloves and a big peach/orange bow above her skirt. She wore a big piece of white collar with green lining around her neck. She too was sitting on a chair but instead had a laptop with her and appeared to be playing a game.

"Whadda mean it needs some refinement to it Vert? It's part of a song about pudding so it's the best! I would know as I was the one to create it," said Neptune with pride.

"That just makes it even more sadder than it already is," responded Noire.

Histoire groaned and floated away outside to the balcony. She looked over the city of Planeptune and sighed, she was unsure of what was happening now.

 _Neptune has to try harder at being a CPU, but even so she does have her moments. But something moves in the dark against us and we have no idea what is going to happen. This comet business might have calmed down over the week, but I'm sure that it has something to do with the attack. Now we have three dangerous enemies hiding somewhere that we don't know about, one last unidentified comet, a man that appears more to be a ghost in physical form and a wounded young man. Even so …_

Her thoughts were interrupted when she heard raised voices back inside, she turned around and sighed at the sight. Neptune was eating her pudding and was oblivious to her surroundings while Noire was keeping her distance from an angry Blanc who had materialised her two-handed hammer and was making obscene death threats towards Vert, who happened to be grinning.

 _Here we go again. I'll have to calm those two down before telling them that I've managed to get pieces of information about the comets, but it may be too cryptic for it._

Histoire entered the room again and looked at Vert and Blanc with a serious look. "Have you two stopped arguing yet? I have important news for everyone here in this room."

Everyone's attention was upon Histoire as she waited for them. Blanc calmed down and de-materialised her hammer and looked at Histoire. "My apologies, I just got a bit carried away."

"That is because you aren't as mature as some people, like I have already said so," stated Vert.

Blanc glanced at Vert with a vicious grin. "How about you shut up, Thunder Tits, or else you're gonna get pummelled!"

"Geeze calm down already Blanny," said Neptune. "I think Histy has something juicy for us."

"Well I do have some information about the comets, and I think something else as well that may include the attackers from a week ago," Histoire responded.

"Let's hear it then," said Noire.

"Indeed, I am rather curious as to what those comets were and who the attackers also were as well," said Vert.

The four Goddesses sat around the table as Histoire floated above it and began to talk about the information she had acquired. "I was able to gather some interesting information surrounding the comets, it seems that the comets sightings have been going on for years, centuries in fact."

"Centuries? Since that guy, Blue, was a comet you mean that people have been dimension crossing into our homes for centuries?" asked Noire who was rather shocked about the news.

"Correct. The earliest known record of these comets is rather sketchy, but I believe it was in the Ancient Era," continued Histore.

"How long ago was that? Was it during the time of the nation of Tari?" asked Blanc.

"Do we have to bring up that name again? The CPU for that place was crazy," moaned Neptune.

"This is a serious conversation here Neptune, so pay attention to the facts. And to answer your question Blanc, well … the Ancient Era was long before Tari ever existed, thousands of years before it. The Ancient Era was around when the land mass of Gamindustri was first created."

"That can't be possible," exclaimed Vert. "Even if you are reliable, Hsitoire, there can't be any record of this 'Ancient Era' if it ever existed, and even if it did how is the source reliable?"

"Because I've seen a few of their written texts. The Ancients were indeed the first race of humans in Gamindustri, but from what I've seen in their drawings they were not any common human, the Ancients seemed to have been some sort of super humans, so to speak."

"Fascinating, but where does that leave us with the comets and the attack?" asked Noire.

"Yeah, how does that help us and poor ol' Blue?" asked Neptune.

"Well it would seem that comets falling from the sky that actually turnout to be people travelling dimensions was rather common back then, and the fact that it has been happening for thousands of years could mean that after the Ancients died out here some of their race left and would occasionally return. The last comet sighting on record before the events a week ago state that it was sighted sometime around two hundred years ago, then all sightings stopped."

The information that was blasted at them was interesting and to some, aka Neptune, rather complicated. After a few minutes of silence Vert was the first of the four Goddesses to speak. "That would mean that their race finally died out here then, but what was this about them being super humans?"

"From the images I saw it would seem that they could absorb certain powers and use them to their will, three images in particulate the four of you would like to see," replied Histoire.

She then floated over to a folder that was nearby on a bench and returned to the group with three photos. The Goddesses looked at them and where either shocked or surprised at what they saw, mainly at the first two; the first was an image of a person with a power symbol on their chest and energy engulfing them. The second image was that of a person who had half of his body engulfed in the same energy but had another power energy on the other side of his body. The third image was a tad more modern as it showed a blurred image of a comet that appeared to be in human shape.

"What is that energy in the first and second images," asked Neptune.

"Since a power symbol can be seen I would presume that it is share energy, the other form of energy in the second image is unknown to me," replied Histoire.

"How could they have used share energy if they were just humans?" Noire questioned. "They would have to be CPUs for that."

"Not necessarily, I did mention that they were a race of super humans so the fact that they could have used share energy is likely."

"What about the second image? What's going on there?" asked Vert.

"I'm not sure, but that image came with several lines of words which also mention comets … and a possible reference to the attackers."

The four Goddesses stared at Histoire in confusion. "How could that be? That was then and this is now, so how could the Ancients know about what's going on here?" demanded Blanc.

"I believe it could be a prophecy from what is written, I'll read it out to you," replied Histoire as she prepared herself.

As the four looked at her she breathed in and out for a few seconds before commencing. She then looked at the four Goddesses before her and began to speak.

"When six comets fall from the sky and four captains emerge,

When the present and the future stand to do battle and friendship suffers,

When faith fails and the seas tremble,

When the enemy returns and the four realms shudder,

When warfare breaks loose across the land,

When bloodshed ensues and a God falls,

The darkness shall cover all whilst destroying time less the Divines look upon the Shadow Walker, last of the ancients, to make the ultimate sacrifice."

"What a cryptic prophecy," said Blanc.

"What is it called?" asked Vert.

"I believe it is called 'The Prophecy of the Shadow Walker', but I strongly believe that this text is important and that Blue is linked to it in someway," replied Histoire.

When Neptune heard the name Blue she became perky again and stood up in a hurry. "Oh yeah, time for me to see Blue, I hope he's awake this time." She then skipped to the fridge and gathered a few puddings for the trip.

"Really, you're going to see him now?" asked Noire. "We're in the middle of an important discussion here."

"Well, I have no more information to give at this point so I suppose Neptune can ..."

She didn't managed to finish her sentence as the door flew open and there stood IF, who looked as if she had been running a marathon. She was breathing in and out rapidly and she attempted to balance herself on her two feet by grabbing a hold on the door frame. She looked up at the group and her face read of bad news.

"I'm afraid there's a bit of trouble; Blue is missing," IF reported.

"Whadda mean he's missing? Did he get sucked into another portal?" asked Neptune.

"No, he was seen leaving the hospital and left a message to the nurse who saw him, he said and I quote; ' I'm doing this because I need answers'."

"If I am not mistaken he is in no condition to walk around outside," said Vert. "If you are looking for him I'll gladly offer my service for the search."

"I'm definitely gonna look for him, he can't run away from pudding time!" exclaimed Neptune.

"I will assist as well," said Blanc.

"I suppose I can waist some of my time looking for him then," said Noire.

The four goddesses stood up and left for the balcony to transform and look from the air while IF contacted the Candidates before heading back out onto the streets. Histoire groaned at the situation before her.

 ***Salve once more (Salve is Latin for hello), this was an informative chapter but important for the story. And yes, I did get the idea of the Prophecy of the Shadow Walker from the Prophecy of the Last Dragonborn, I had to have some sort of convenient plot device now didn't I?**

 **Neptune: At long last the fanfic looks upon me again! Will I take up the spotlight in the next chapter oh-so-powerful author?**

 **That remains to be seen, Neptune. Anyway, this fancfic has reached over 2,130 views which I find amazing, thanks for reading this, stay tuned for more content and leave a comment if you wish and see ya next time.***


	13. Train Till You Bleed

**Chapter 12: Train Till You Bleed**

Brian walked down the street while attempting not to show that he was feeling pain in his chest, he was also glancing around his surroundings to make sure he wasn't being followed, he knew that the girls cared, to a degree, about him so he dreaded what would happen to him if they managed to catch up with him.

He was keeping his eyes open, looking for a certain figure in the crowds. He doubted whether he would find this person around the streets of Planeptune, but better to try than not to have done so. After ten minutes of walking on a street he noticed a man standing in an alleyway, he was wearing a black coat, a hood, discoloured pants and boots. What surprised Brian was what the man was wearing on his face; he had a fake white beard and dark sunglasses. Despite the glasses Brian could recognise the flaring blue and red eyes of his. With a sigh he walked up to the man and stared at him. He was a tad taller than Brian, possibly around 6 ft 2.

"Why the fake beard?" Brian asked him.

The strange man looked at him and spoke in a Scottish accent. "What're talking about laddy? I'm Santa Claus."

"That is the most pathetic disguise I have ever seen in my entire existence," sighed Brian. "You're The Wraith, I can tell by the eyes."

"So the glasses don't work?" he asked, dropping the accent.

"Of course they don't, it's the equivalent of a giraffe in a bad outfit attempting to get into a Polar Bear Only disco club."

"That bad huh?"

"Utterly bad."

Wraith sighed. "Anyway, I presume you are hear because you have questions?"

"I do," Brian nodded. "But why are you here? I was mildly expecting you to be somewhere secluded."

"I was looking for informants, that's how the Dark Captains get their information around here."

"Seriously, you walk around the city looking like that? That is definitely not going to attract any suspicion at all … yes not at all," said Brian sarcastically.

"Hey shut up, the beard and the glasses were all that I could afford!" Wraith exclaimed.

Brian chuckled before getting serious. "Now then, I want answers to all my questions, understood? No bypassing them at all."

"I'll do my best."

"Good, now then ..." Brian was interrupted by Wraith holding up his hand to Brian.

"Not here, if you want answers to your questions we'll need somewhere secluded from the streets and alleyways," said Wraith. "Follow me, I know a place."

The two of them walked down the alleyway and spent the next several minutes navigating their way through the streets, attempting not to catch any attention to themselves. Wraith led Brian down another alleyway that led to a worn out door, which he then pulled out a key from his pocket and unlocked the door.

"You may enter, if you want answers."

Brian entered the building and found himself in a small apartment that had seen better days, they were in Wraith's home. Brian sighed and sat on the chair, which let out a creak. Wraith turned his back to Brian, then he took off the fake beard and the glasses before pulling his scarf over his face, he then turned back to Brian and sat down on his bed.

"Now then, ask away," said Wraith.

"Alright then. First off, who are you and what are you?"

"I am called The Wraith. If you want the name that was given to me when I was born, then sorry, but I cannot answer that I am a human, but not wholly human as well."

Brian nodded. "Very well then. Who are the Dark Captains?"

"They were once leaders of armies that brought destruction in the world that they came from. I rallied people together to fight back against them and their master, and after many years of war they were defeated, but at a huge cost. I found out not long after that they had escaped using forgotten magic that could open portals to a different dimension, but since I knew that specific magic I managed to follow them into this dimension."

Brian became lost in thought as he rubbed his chin with his thumb and finger. "Portals huh … wait a moment, that's how I got here!"

Despite being it almost impossible to read emotions on Wraith's face it looked clear to Brian that guilt was upon Wraith's face. He became suspicious about what was going on with Wraith at that moment and what he was going to say.

"Well, about that … I was the one to bring you here," confessed Wraith.

Brian was stunned at what he had just heard. "How … how can that be possible?"

"Well, I am a God after all, so I'm sure that can explain how I managed it."

"I-I'm at lost for words, how can you be a God? And I did you choose me to come here?"

"I chose you because … actually, you can figure that out yourself. I'm here to make sure that nothing goes terribly wrong, at least not too much."

Brian held his head in his hands and twitched. "So am I right in believing that you know my true name then?"

"Yes I do, Brian."

"I don't know whether to be confused at this situation or be crept by you knowing possibly more about me than I do."

"Perhaps both, so who knows," chuckled Wraith.

Wraith then stood up and stretched his back before looking back at Brian. "From what I saw a week ago you barely know how to use a sword in a life or death struggle, so I'm going to teach you the basics for today."

"Really? Well then, I suppose I can't refuse an offer like that," said Brian. "How long am I going to be training for?"

"You will train till you bleed," replied Wraith.

-Somewhere in Virtua Forest-

"Why do we have to train here?" whined Brian.

"Because there's more open space here," replied Wraith. "Plus the Dark Captains aren't in the forest now, I've been checking for the last week."

"So where are they?"

"I don't know, they've managed to remain undercover ever since they retreated from the attack, I've only uncovered their informants."

"And what happened to them?"

"They … died." Wraith was a little hesitant to answer the question.

"Why am I not surprised," Brian mumbled.

The two walked into a small clearing that was devoid of life, Wraith stopped in the middle of the clearing, turned and look at Brian straight in the eyes. "This is where we will train."

"Do you have a sword that I can use?" asked Brian.

"Not the swords you would imagine, but fortunately for you I … borrowed a steel sword that you can use," replied Wraith.

"Oh good, you're not only a murderer but a thieve as well," sighed Brian.

"When you've been living for centuries you pick up certain things to survive, not a lot of them are morally perfect."

"Centuries? Seriously? I thought you were joking about being a God," commented Brian with a little surprise.

"I'm serious, I'm older than the Goddesses of Gamindustri, and they've been around for a long time," responded Wraith.

"So how old are you?" Brian asked.

"Hmm … I've lost count once I became over a thousand years old, so I could possibly be over one thousand and one hundred to one thousand and two hundred years old," replied Wraith calmly. Brian just stared at him in disbelief.

Ignoring the bewildered look on Brian's face, Wraith pulled out a steel sword from his coat and threw it at Brian, who caught it with some effort. "You're main weaknesses are your speed and strength. I'll be putting you through some gruelling training methods to help your states increase."

Brian noticed that Wraith referenced the whole scheme as some sort of computer game, but he decided not to delve into the matter. Instead he was more concerned about the amount of pain he would be going through due to his injuries.

"I shouldn't be doing too much hard training, I'm still recovering from my injuries you know."

"Just do your best. Now, I want you to start practising your sword techniques, that will help start your increase in strength and speed. Just go over to that tree and doing some slashes and whatnot, pretend it's your enemy."

Brian nodded, walked over to the tree Wraith had pointed at and began sparing against it. Wraith watched the whole event before him and sighed.

 _He may be here looking for answers, but he doesn't know the right questions. He's only here because of the nightmare that he had, and I feel guilty for putting him through that, so I won't be telling him that I was the one who gave him that nightmare, he wouldn't comprehend the power that I wield, not yet at least._

"Hey, how long am I going to be sparing against a tree?" Brian asked Wraith.

"Until you arms cannot move," replied Wraith, much to Brian's distress.

"Seriously, until I can't feel my arms at all?"

"Would you prefer if you went up against me?"

"No no no no no no!"

"Then keep going then."

Brian grumbled before resuming his sparing session with a tree. After several minutes he stopped and look back at Wraith. "How long are you going to train me?"

"That would depend on the situation, possibly a few days, maybe three days at best," replied Wraith.

"I suppose I can keep up with that," shrugged Brian. "But I can't keep those … what do you call them? Goddesses? What was the other name they went by?"

"CPUs are the main Goddesses while the younger ones are called CPU Candidates."

"Right. I can't keep the CPUs and Candidates waiting for three days though, I suspect that they're looking for me."

"They are looking for you, but they can wait for three days, you need to be trained before you go dying on us."

"Couldn't the Goddesses train me for a while as well? As much as I appreciate you doing this for me I'm sure the CPUs would have something that I can learn from."

"They will train you, but not yet. My methods will save you in the long run and trust me, you'll need to know them soon."

Brain didn't like how Wraith said those words, it was as if he knew, somewhat to a degree, what would happen. He then resumed his sparing session with the tree and after twenty minutes it looked as if he was making progress with his slashing techniques, he was becoming a little faster and the tree was covered in slash marks.

"Good, very good. I'll let you have a little rest first before I start increasing your speed and agility, they will be needed for the first technique that I will be teaching you. And that would possibly be either tomorrow or the day after that," said Wraith.

Brian gasped for air as he plummeted to the ground, dropping the sword as he did so. "That was tiring for me."

"Well you are still injured, so I don't expect the absolute best of your abilities at this point in time."

"Fair enough," said Brian while nodding. "Hey Wraith, I think I might need a cool title if I'm going to be better than what I am now."

"Hmm, do you have a title in mind for yourself?" asked Wraith.

Brian thought for a moment as he put on his thinking face, then after a minute he grinned and look up at Wraith. "Yes, I do have one and it'll do nicely with the training that I will have to endure."

"So what is it then?"

"The Shadow Walker."


	14. The Return

**Chapter 13: The Return**

"It's been three damn days and no one has seen this guy," grumbled Blanc.

"Patience, Blanc, patience. That is how we will find him," said Vert in a soothing voice.

"Could he have gone to another nation?" asked Noire.

"Why would he leave Planeptune now? He still hasn't had any pudding yet!" exclaimed Neptune.

The four Goddesses were standing on the balcony of the Planpetune Basilicom, all four of them had been searching the nation for Brian, spending three days in total to look for him, yet there had been no sign of him.

"This is getting repetitive and annoying," sighed Blanc. "I say we stop looking for him."

"What?! We can't stop now!" shouted Neptune.

"Neptune, it's been three days and there is still no sign of him. I would say that he is in another nation or he's dead," said Noire.

As the three of them argued over the situation Vert was looking over the city, trying to piece together any clues that they had come across. Blanc attempted to do that the day before but gave up after several hours and started to read her book. The only clues that they had was the message back at the hospital, plus a camera shot of Brian walking down a street before turning towards an alleyway. They had looked there but found nothing.

"I'm afraid that I can't solve anything with the little amount of clues that we have, so I'm inclined to end the search, for the moment at least" explained Vert.

Standing by the doorway that led to the balcony stood the Candidates, they too had been part of the search and they had also been unable to find anything regarding the disappearance. Out of the four Uni was the most agitated about it, mainly because she reasoned that he had left because he wanted to and doesn't want anything to do with the CPUs. Nepgear was the most worried though, she had searched all over the city, checking every street and alleyway yet never found anything.

"Why are we even bothering with this search any more?" asked Uni, her tone of voice becoming agitated. "It's obvious that he doesn't want anything to do with us."

"That may not be the case, maybe he's still looking for answers," Nepgear retorted.

"So he didn't want to play with us, is that what you're saying?" asked Ram.

"He doesn't want to play with us?" asked Rom.

"Erm … I guess so," replied Uni.

Over by the couch was Histoire, IF and Compa. IF had been running intelligence with the Guild in order to find Brian, but failed to come up with a lot of information, just images of him walking the streets. Compa had helped IF in the search but too failed to uncover any new information. Histoire had been talking with the other Oracles for any leads, but they haven't been successful in doing so, instead she continued to study the Prophecy in order to understand it better. IF began pacing around the room.

"Iffy, are you ok?" asked Compa.

"I'm still waiting for any new information that the Guild has regarding Blue, but they haven't been calling me at all," replied IF.

Histoire sighed. "This isn't good, I was supposed to keep an eye on him, he has something to do with the Prophecy whether he knows it or not."

"If we find him I'm gonna give him a punch to the face," grumbled IF.

"Maybe you will," said Compa when one of IF's phones began to make a ringing sound. IF grabbed the phone and listened to the person speaking from the other side.

"Yeah … uh-huh … interesting … yep, I'm on my way." IF put the phone away and walked up to the Candidates and the other CPUs, who had formed into one big group out on the balcony.

"Hey, I got some interesting information from the Guild, apparently a few hunters went into Virtua Forest and came across what appears to have been a large fight, it might be a lead. I'm going to check it out with Compa."

Vert nodded. "You two can go looking on the ground while a few of us look from the air, with luck we may find something else in Virtua Forest."

"I won't be going, I can wait here for you to return but I won't be searching in the forest," said Blanc coldly.

"Very well then, but you can at least have one last check over the city?" asked Noire. "Take your sisters with you as well."

"I suppose I can do that."

"Let's go and find us a lad in trouble!" shouted Neptune as she transformed.

Noire sighed before transforming into Black Heart. She now wore a black swimsuit with the top of the breast and stomach area cut out while it connects around her neck. Her eyes became a glowing light blue with a power symbol in them and her hair became a mix of white and silver. She activated her wings and flew into the air, followed by Neptune.

Nepgear and Uni then transformed into Purple Sister and Black Sister and flew into the air with their older sisters. Uni had a one piece black swimsuit with matching gloves and leggings. Her hair became the same colour as Black Sister but instead it was worn in curled ringlets/drills while her bangs spike outward. Her eyes were a bluish green colour with the power symbol visible in them. Strangely her bust size decreased instead of increasing.

Vert was the next to transform into Green Heart, swiftly followed by Blanc into White Heart and finally Rom and Ram into White Sisters. Vert wore a white bikini styled suit with small black and green pieces, this was the most revealing of all the HDD outfits and made it hard to hide her breasts. Her hair became a foamy green and was put up in a ponytail while her eyes had become a light purple with a power symbol.

Blanc, now White Heart, wore a white and light blue swimsuit with sleeves and gloves, her hair became blue and had grown longer as parts of it came up to her back neck, she also had a cowlick, yet despite her transformation her breast size was stil rather small. Her eyes had become pinkish red with the power symbols as well. Rom and Ram had similar outfit designs but instead of it being white with blue lining it had red linin. Rom had blue hair while Ram had red hair, both were similar to White Heart's hair style.

"Let's get this over and done with already," grumbled White Heart.

The others nodded and they flew into the air towards Virtua Forest as Purple Heart carried Compa while Nepgear carried IF while White Heart and the White Sisters flew over the city. Histoire waved them goodbye before leaving the room and began to float her way down the corridor towards her office.

-Somewhere in the city-

Wraith leaned against a metal pipe in the alleyway that led to his home, he kept his head down so he didn't attract any attention from the people on the streets. He looked down the alleyway and saw Brian sitting on the ground against the wall, he was breathing in and out quickly and a few fingers began to twitch. Wraith sighed at the sight before him.

 _I may have pushed him a bit too far in the training, a pity that he didn't learn that specific technique but I believe – no, I know that he will learn it in the not so distant future. Hmm?_

He turned his attention to Brian once more and noticed that Brian had passed out from exhaustion, his breathing had quickened in pace and a red patch had appeared on his shirt, when Wraith bend down and took a look he recognised it as blood.

 _Ok, I did push him too hard during the training session, now his wounds have reopened. I think I might have some sort of aid around me somewhere._

He reached through whatever pockets he had left for a minute before finding an almost used up roll of bandages. He quickly pulled up Brian's shirt and applied the bandages around his chest while applying pressure to the wound. Once done he pulled Brian's shirt back down, picked him up and placed him over his right shoulder.

"Hang in there, Brian," mumbled Wraith. "We're heading back to the Basilicom."

Wraith then ran and jumped, catching a hold on the metal pipe before swiftly climbing it and landed on top of the roof, quickly looking to make sure no one was watching he sprinted forward, jumping from rooftop to rooftop. As he ran and jumped a blue ghostly energy seemed to escape from his back and legs, which sightly engulfed him, this only made him faster.

He was careful not to get Brian injured even further than he already was, yet he did not cease his quick pace as he jumped from building to building, climbing walls and pipes before he got near the centre of the city, then he saw the Basilicom tower further ahead. When he glanced at Brian he saw a trickle of blood flow from the corner of his mouth.

"Damn it, I have to be quicker," Wraith muttered to himself.

Suddenly a shadow came over him and he noticed that a part of the shadow was moving swiftly, he then quickly realised what was coming towards him; a giant axe. With speed that would make a cheetah look slow he moved his left arm around and caught the axe, his arm slightly glowing with the blue energy mixed with a bit of red as he grabbed the axe.

"There's no need for that, Lady White Heart," said Wraith.

He looked up above him and stared at White Heart, who was looking furious. "Tch, how the hell did you catch my axe?!"

"Simple, you were too slow."

White Heart was becoming even more angry than before, this could be seen by the look in her eyes, even Wraith shuddered at the sight. "Um, I have to go now, see ya later alligator," he said as he threw the axe back at White Heart before sprinting towards another rooftop.

"Hey! Wait there damn it!" shouted White Heart as she caught her axe.

He stopped as he jumped on top of a roof and looked back at White Heart. "What do you want now? If you're going to ask about Blue then save it, I'm heading for the Basilicom."

"Just shut up already! How the hell do you even know me and why do you have Blue?" asked White Heart, her tone becoming increasingly pissed.

"To answer your first question, I did my research. As for your second question, I'm taking him back to the Basilicom for treatment, his wounds have started to reopen," replied Wraith.

Just then the two of them heard someone calling out to White Heart. "Hey, big sis, we didn't find anyth… what the heck?" It was Ram/White Sister who had called out to her, she was flying in the air and followed by Rom/White Sister.

"Hey Rom and Ram, I've found him, and someone else as well," responded White Heart.

"Hey, that's Blue!" shouted Ram.

"Uh-huh, that's him," said Rom.

"You're all wasting my time here," said Wraith in a pissed voice. "Just leave me be, Blue's going to bleed to death at this rate."

White Heart glared at Wraith while Rom and Ram looked frightened at the sight of Wraith. "Promise you will explain what happened once we reach the Basilicom?" White Heart asked Wraith. "If you don't then I'll beat you up!"

"Yeah yeah, alright then," promised Wraith, who then sprinted across the roof and jumped onto the ground in a matter of seconds, then he ran towards the Basilicom, but what interested White Heart as she swiftly followed him was how he appeared to be slightly engulfed in a blue and red energy, the blue on the right side of his body while the red was on his left. Whatever it was it happened to make him faster, almost as fast a CPU with processor units she reasoned.

When they reached the Basilicom Wraith didn't slow down, instead he did something remarkable; he began to climb the wall while balancing Brian with his right arm.

"The hell do you think you're doing?!" yelled White Heart. "You could get him killed as well as yourself!"

"No I won't, I've had centuries to practice my climbing skill," replied Wraith.

It took many minutes before he reached the balcony but he got there in one piece, as had Brian. White Heart and her two younger sisters were waiting on top of the balcony and were looking at Wraith, they here stunned at what he had managed to do.

"That was cool!" exclaimed Ram. "I want to learn how to climb tall buildings!"

"Me … too," said Rom nervously.

The two of them returned back to their human form, followed by White Heart with a sigh. "Anyway, you promised to answer my questions once we returned here. Now spit out answers," Blanc said coldly.

"I think it would be best to wait for the other CPUs to return before I answer your questions," replied Wraith.

"Hmph, fine then. Rom, Ram, contact the others to get back here, I'm going to find Histoire and tell her the news."

Rom and Ram nodded while Blanc left the balcony and entered inside to find Histoire, Wraith was left holding Brian as he entered inside the Basilicom and into the large room around him, he found a couch and placed Brian on it. He began to think to himself as he sighed.

 _Now we wait. Still, it's interesting to meet the CPUs, I'm sure I know what type of questions they will ask. But my meeting with Histoire will be … troublesome, to say the least. I can't reveal too much information to her._

 _True, you don't want to reveal anything too spicy to her now, do you?_

 _Huh? Oh come on, seriously? Why are you talking to me in my mind right now of all times?_

 _Because we're one. Did you forget what happened over a thousand years ago?_

 _To hell with you, just remain quiet._

 _Oh really? We haven't had a conversation for over a hundred years you know, so it would be good for us to have a real discussion._

 _I'll say no to that, you don't seem to remember what happened last time. I went on a rampage and almost destroyed a part of a city._

 _And that is what you get if you use our power, you knew what you were getting into._

 _Grr, shut up already. I had little choice at that time, besides, I did what needed to be done so the others could survive._

 _They surely missed you, but now you're back to where it all began. So, when are you going to tell the boy about the truth?_

 _Only when needed, but not now. Sometime in the future will do._

 _Very well then, I won't pressure you further about it. You know where I am if you need me._

 _You're stuck in my mind so there is little for you to go anyway, but I won't be needing to talk to you again. Understand?_

 _Whatever you say, just remember that I am still here in your mind, and I'm not the only one in it._

The session in Wraith's mind finally came to an end. He stumbled around as he suffered a major headache as soon as the talking was over, he grunted as he sat on a chair while rubbing his forehead.

"Damn that crazy woman, I thought she was sealed away," grumbled Wraith. "Well, I suppose she isn't the most craziest being that I know."


	15. Questions, Answers and Breasts?

**Chapter 14: Questions, Answers and … Breasts?**

Compa was leaning over Brian as she nursed his wounds to the best of her abilities, his breathing was finally becoming stable. Meanwhile, Neptune was closely watching the whole healing process while eating a pudding, she never took her eyes of the scene in front of her.

"How long are you going to stay there eating pudding, Nep?" asked an irritated IF.

"Until it's over of course, then I will strike and bring him back by giving him pudding," replied a chirpy Neptune.

IF sighed and took her attention off Neptune and towards Wraith, who was sitting on a chair and was surrounded by the CPUs, the most annoyed of the lot definitely was Blanc who still couldn't understand how Wraith had managed to catch her axe, no one had ever done it before.

"So, are you going to talk?" asked Noire.

"That would depend on what questions you lot have," Wraith answered.

"Alright then. First off, who are you and what are you?" asked Blanc. "You can't be any normal human with that type of speed and power."

"Human? Heh, I left my humanity behind a long time ago, I am something … different now," replied Wraith with a snigger. "As for who I am, my name is The Wraith."

"I believe Blanc wanted to know your true name," said Vert. "I, for one, am also intrigued about your real identity."

"I am simply The Wraith, nothing more nothing less."

"What a vague response," muttered Uni.

Wraith chose to ignore the comment and proceeded to tap his fingers together. "Anything else you want to know?" he asked them.

"Yep, I want to know something!" Neptune cried out. "What exactly happened to Blue?"

"Simple, he went to find me and then we spent the next three days training," replied Wraith. "But … I put him through a tough training regime and this morning he had collapsed and had internal bleeding problems, but that seems to have been solved by your nurse."

Compa turned around and smiled at him before resuming her treatment on Brian. "Anything else?" Wraith asked the group.

"Yes, I have one. What is your connection with Blue?" asked Histoire as she emerged from a corner.

"That is a good question," Vert commented. "It would seem that you want this boy to succeed so he doesn't get himself killed."

"I … I've taken a liking to him, after all … we are alike," he muttered that last part quietly, yet Histoire managed to hear him.

"Hmm, I have a few questions that I want to ask him privately, if you don't mind Wraith," Histoire said.

"I can answer of your questions if needed," replied Wraith as he stood up and walked to the door with Histoire floating beside him. Once they left the room the group just stared at the closed door, and they could only wonder what Histoire wanted to talk to him about.

Out in the corridor Wraith and Histoire looked at each other, Histoire found him intimidating and fearsome, yet he didn't even have a weapon him, but his eyes made him intimidating and fearsome. He had seen war, too many wars in fact. Histoire was curious about him, from what she could see of his face he appeared to be young but he also seemed to be older than he looked.

"I take it that you were one of the comets?" she asked.

"Yes, the fifth comet," replied Wraith.

"Hmm, how did you managed to come to this dimension?"

"I opened a portal so I could follow the Dark Captains who had managed to escape here, your CPUs and their human friends have already met them."

"So they were the attackers … tell me, how can you and these Dark Captains open trans-dimensional portals?"

"Magic. It was all the rage."

Histoire sighed, she wasn't getting much information out of Wraith despite telling her about the Dark Captains. He was holding back a lot of information and she knew it.

 _But why is he holding back information that could very well help us in tracking down these Dark Captains before they can strike again? It just doesn't make sense. However, his power … I can recognise a part of it._

"About your power, is it …" she didn't get to finish her question as Wraith answered it.

"Yes, a part of it is what you think it is," he replied.

"But how? How did you gain that power?"

"Well, it is only a part of my power, but … I can't really tell you the rest. One day you will know, maybe sooner than you think." He then started to walk down the corridor towards the elevator.

"I have one last question for you before you leave; were you referred to by another name?" asked Histoire.

Wraith stopped and glanced over his left shoulder at Histoire. "Well, I suppose I can tell you one of my 'titles'. I am, or was, called 'The Oracle'."

Histoire didn't say anything else, instead she stared at Wraith with a confused face. She wasn't quite sure what he was talking about, but she knew of one thing; something was going to happen in the near future. And the title 'The Oracle', she had heard of it somewhere before, but she couldn't place where.

 _I'll have to investigate it, there's more to that man than meets the eye. Still, he's hiding information, but I can let that slide for the time being. Right now I have to talk to Brian and see if he is alright and if he learnt anything from the past three days, plus I have to tell him a few things._

Meanwhile inside the room the CPUs were talking amongst themselves, mainly about Wraith and Brian. While Nepgear and Uni were talking amongst themselves Rom and Ram were running around the place. Noire, Vert and Blanc were arguing about the true motives of The Wraith while Neptune, IF and Compa were around Brian. He had stopped bleeding and his breathing was stable, they couldn't help notice that his left leg twitched and he began to groan. This got the attention of everyone in the room as they then walked over to the couch and looked at Brian. Suddenly he started to grumble until he let out a loud shout as he sat up straight.

"IS THAT THE TIME?!"

Everyone in the room was surprised and several of them became frightened, especially Rom and Ram. "What the hell was that for?!" yelled Noire.

"Huh? What the hell?" Brian mumbled as he looked around him. He could recognise most of the girls except for three, a small brown haired girl who was lacking in chest size, a twin tail black haired girl with an annoyed face and a blonde tall girl with a huge chest.

"The hell are you three?" he asked. "And where am I?"

"That's Blanc, Noire and Vert, they're also Goddesses, but they're not as awesome as me," responded Neptune.

"You're an idiot, Neptune," sighed Noire. "But yes, I am Noire, and remember this; I can only do everything!"

Brian looked at her sceptically. "Oh really? Can you read a three hundred paged book in two hours?"

"I-I haven't tried that yet, but I will be able to do it, just you wait!" stuttered Noire. Brian grinned and let out a slight chuckle.

 _Interesting, she reminds me of Uni. Perhaps they're related, I'd say they would have to be sisters._

"I'm sure I can do that," said Blanc.

"You're Blanc, right?" asked Brian.

"Yes, what is it?"

"I remember IF saying that you have a large library, is that true?"

"That is correct. Why do you ask?"

"Because I like books and libraries, plus I was curious."

"Anyway, as much as we want to know more about him as well as him getting acquainted with us, there are some questions that we have to get out of the way," Vert said to the group.

"Right. So Blue, how did you managed to get to this dimension?" asked Blanc.

"Well, I got sucked into a portal that spat me out here, apparently Wraith was the one who opened the portal to get me here despite being in another dimension," replied Brian who rubbed his chest.

"Interesting, so how could Wraith manage to open a portal while in another dimension, pray tell?" asked Noire who was rather curious.

"I'm not sure, but he did boast that he was a God," answered Brian.

"What?! He can't be a God, I doubt he can even transform into HDD," exclaimed Uni.

"I'm afraid that he might actually be a God, and not just from looking at the minimal display of power that he showed," said Histoire who entered the room. "He told me a title that he used to be called; 'The Oracle'. I've heard of it before and I did a little bit of research just before I entered the room, it would seem that he's been around for a long, long time. There was a man who was called The Oracle from the nation of Tari, I strongly believe it is him."

"But Tari was way before us! How could he have been there?" asked Neptune.

"There is only one answer to that; he is immortal," replied Histoire. "He is also connected to you, Blue, but I'm not sure how or why."

"I do believe that he is immortal, after all he said that he lost count of his age after he reached over one thousand years old," said Brian. "But what is this Tari that you're talking about?"

"Tari was once a nation here in Gamindustri, long before the rise of Planeptune, Lastation, Leanbox and Lowee. The CPU of Tari, now commonly known as Rei Rights or the CPU of Chaos, became a cruel Goddess and in response her people lost faith in her, thus she destroyed her own nation but in the process she was sealed away," Histoire lectured. "A few months ago she had returned and attempted to destroy Gamindustri but was defeated by the CPUs before you."

Brian was interested with the history lesson that he was provided with. "Fascinating, but what happened to her? And how is Wraith connected to this nation of Tari?"

"After she was defeated she was sealed away once again, her location only known to the CPUs. As for Wraith, well, I believe he was once called The Oracle. There was a record of a man called The Oracle who served the CPU of Chaos as her personal Oracle, just as I do with Neptune," replied Histoire. "But this Oracle became a leader for the people and helped lead them against their CPU."

"But why would he wanted to have worked under a psychopathic Goddess who wanted to destroy the world?" asked Vert.

"That is not recorded, yet if any of you should bring up the subject with Wraith the next time you see him just remember; tread with caution. I'm sure he isn't someone to mess around with."

Brian absorbed the information given to him through his mind and began to wonder why him and Wraith were somehow connected. His thoughts were distracted by Histoire talking to him.

"Blue, I need to speak with you sometime soon, The CPUs and the others already know about it but you have yet to be told."

Brian nodded. "Very well then. Oh by the way, where is Wraith?"

"He left after he told me his other title, I'm not sure where he is now. But for the moment you have to rest until you return to your former strength," replied Histoire.

"What?! Why did he leave?! We still have questions that he needs to answer!" yelled Noire.

"Just leave him be," said Brian. "It's better to leave him alone than to question him too much. Besides, I'm sure he'll pop up again sometime."

"Yeah no more questions right now, we have pudding to eat," Neptune grinned. "Blue and I are long overdue for a pudding session."

Brian shook his head at the comment, and he saw that he wasn't the only one to do so as well. "Whatever rocks your boat, Neptune. But can I at least get a bit of rest first?"

"You've been unconscious for a while now and that counts as resting, so no," Neptune said. "Now sit tight cause we're all gonna have a late night sleep over."

Some of the girls appeared to be excited about the idea, especially Rom, Ram, Nepgear, Vet and Compa, IF didn't appear happy but they could tell that she liked the idea, the rest of the group didn't appear amused though, especially Noire and Blanc. Uni looked torn between having a sleep over or returning to Lastation to work and finally prove that she can outdo her older sister. Histoire sighed and shook her head before leaving the room, presumably to return to her office.

"Sorry to disappoint you, Neptune, but me and Uni won't be staying here," said Noire. "Come on Uni, we're leaving."

Neptune didn't appeared to be fazed by it though, instead she looked even more determined to have Noire and Uni stay for the night. "Ahh come on, Lonely Heart, who knows what would happen if you stay here, you could even make a friend for once."

That comment seemed to shatter her. "Wh-wh-what do you mean 'Lonely Heart'?! I have tons of friends!"

"Little sisters don't count," smirked Neptune as she pulled her 'troll face' look on.

As Noire argued with Neptune about her 'friends' Brian sighed and took a look around him. Nepgear was having a chat with Uni, Rom and Ram were running around the place, Blanc wasn't paying attention to her surroundings and was reading a book while Vert had taken a seat next to Brian, she appeared to be smiling at him. He couldn't help but notice how her chest was fairly large and at some points would bounce.

"Um … hello there, Vert was it?" stammered Brian.

"My my, you seem to be a bit shy there, there's no need to be like that," she said as her chest bounced. "And yes, my name is Vert, pleased to be acquainted."

"S-same here too," Brian stuttered. He did wonder how Vert managed to walk around, or even run, with those breasts of hers.

 _Well at least she's formal towards people, yet how does she even manage to carry those breasts of hers around? I'm no pervert, but I am slightly curious about that … a little bit of course, I don't really care at all._

"Hmm? You seem to be catching a gaze of my voluptuous breasts, what is your opinion on them?" asked Vert with a wicked grin.

"Um … well … erm, I-I'm not sure what to say," replied Brian while trying to look for an escape rout.

"Oi, Thunder Tits! Leave him alone, can't you see he's nervous?" shouted Blanc. It could be seen clearly that she wasn't happy in the slightest.

"Oh my, are you just jealous that I happen to be the most mature out of everyone here in this room?" Vert asked.

Blanc looked even more pissed off as she heard that comment, her fists were clenched and blood-lust crept over her face. "The hell do you mean 'most mature'?! That would just mean that you're older ya damn hag!"

"Oh I assure you that I am no hag, my looks prove it," Vert said casually. "My breast size goes to show that I am not only the most mature but also the most elegent and beautiful of the entire group." She always had fun in these types of situations with Blanc, these arguments could at times go on for hours on end.

"Grr! How 'bout I just rip those damn udders off and be done with it?!"

Vert then had an idea, one that involved Brian and his opinion. "Tell me, Blue, which type of breasts do you prefer; big or small?"

Brian hadn't expected to be dragged into this skewered argument, in fact he was petrified now that he had to answer a ridiculous question. He looked at Vert who had a grin on her face and then at Blanc who had a mix of curiosity and blood-lust across her face.

 _I'm sure that whatever answer I give will get me beaten up by one of them, or even both. How in Jupiter's name do I get out of this predicament?!_

As the two of them closed in on Brian he began to feel cold, he could only guess what could happen if he failed to give them an answer or if he gave an answer that caused one of them to be 'upset'. He was saved when a voiced called out to him.

"Hey, Blue, come on over here, this is a good time to speak with Histoire," IF called out to him.

Brian was quick to get onto his feet and walk quickly to IF leaving Vert and Blanc behind without an answer, which he knew that they, especially Vert, would hound him until he gave them one. Once he got to IF he sighed with relief. "Thanks for giving me an excuse to get out of there."

"No problem, just get to Histoire before those two attempt to get an answer out of you, also Neptune is going to have you stay up all night to play games and eat pudding so good luck with dealing with that," said IF.

"Thanks for the support," Brian responded with a condescending tone. "Oh by the way, where's my hat, book, knives and sword?"

"The knives and the sword are back at Compa's house while your hat and book are over by the table."

"Ta very much, now to see that tome fairy." Brian then left the room and strode down the corridor towards Histoire's office, wondering what she wanted to talk to him about.

* * *

As all of this happened a band of eight people were grouping outside the city in an abandoned farmhouse, one of the people in the group was carrying a small metal box with various dragon, dogoo and other monster symbols carved into it. A small circle was carved into the top of the box while a sort of keyhole was at the front. The band of people wore various different type of clothing, some were dressed as adventurers, others were dressed as common citizens, but they seemed frightened at the tall man who was carrying the small box in his left hand who happened to be at the very front of the group.

The frightening tall man wore a black mask with steel plates nailed onto the sides that connected to the top of his head and towards the mouth and nose, the mask covered the front of his face and the sides of his head while the back of his head had messy dark blue hair that reached to his shoulders, the mask itself had two eye slots, two holes for the nose to breathe in and out with and it also had a thin but wide hole where people could see the mouth. Yet when they would look at it they wished they hadn't as he always looked as if he was snarling at everyone.

He was also missing his right arm up to the elbow, instead he had a spiky curved blade attached. His clothes consisted of a few layers of dark grey robes with a scaled breastplate, a scaled left gauntlet, boiled leather boots and scaled armour on his legs. Scars could be seen on his arms and legs and battle marks could also be seen on his armour. He was what Lothar had dubbed 'the disfigured one'.

The group approached the abandoned farmhouse and the 'disfigured one' walked up to Agandur's Right Hand, who happened to be waiting for them, he presented to him the metal box and gave it to him.

"Just as you wanted; one Share Energy container, courtesy of the long dead Ancients," said the 'disfigured one', his voice sounded harsh as he spoke.

Agandur's Right Hand grinned as he handled the metal box, dubbed the 'Share Energy Container'. "Good, very good indeed, and to find it in one piece as well. And you also managed to keep control over our new followers, as expected of you, Kharzark the Interrogator."

"I take it the next part of the plan will commence shortly?" asked Kharzark.

"Not yet, I've caught word that all the CPUs have been flying around Planeptune lately, we will have to wait until they are gone before making our move to ensnare the Share Energy of Planeptune." replied Agandur's Right Hand.

He chuckled as he turned around and walked back into the farmhouse, his chuckling turned into mild laughing as he sat on a barrel and placed the box in his rugged clothing.

* * *

 **PS: Hello readers, I've made a small adjustment to the chapter An Ancient Prophecy regarding the Prophecy of the Shadow Walker with the second line, it isn't much but I decided to change that small bit because of the direction the story will take.**


	16. The Sleepover Begins

**Chapter 15: The Sleepover Begins**

Brian was sitting on the couch alongside Neptune, who still happened to be eating pudding, except Brian was now eating pudding as well much to her delight. He never had pudding before as he didn't prefer to eat a lot of sweets, on occasions he would have picked a salad over a small piece of chocolate which was a confusing thing for small children to understand when he was younger. At any rate he seemed to be enjoying the pudding.

"It's not bad," commented Brian about the pudding.

"Not bad? Not bad? It's the greatest thing that has ever been created in all of food history!" exclaimed Neptune.

"Really? I've always thought a t-bone steak was the greatest creation in food history," Brian said.

"No, you've got it all wrong my dear dimensional buddy. Pudding can restore strength, fatigue and overall happiness," Neptune explained. "Therefore it is the best dish that has been created."

"That's some flawed logic you have there," sighed Brian. "Pudding is merely a desert type dish that, if eaten on a regular basis everyday, can cause unforeseen side affects to ones health, same goes for all sweets."

"Nah that ain't true, it's just silly superstition."

"I assure you that it is a real fact, people back in my dimension suffer because of that."

As the two of them 'discussed' the flaws in their 'facts and logic' the rest of the group had gotten ready to stay up late and play games, they had their sleeping bags set up and various packets of food littered the ground and table. Noire, Uni and Blanc had been convinced to stay the night along with the rest of them. Uni had silently been happy about staying the night while Noire did her usual tsundere act to cover up any hints of actually wanting to stay in the first place, while Blanc just remained quite and decided to read Brian's book, which he allowed her to do. Meanwhile Vert was keeping Nepgear all to herself.

"Um … Vert? I-I think that's enough hugging for the moment," stuttered Nepgear.

"Are you sure? I need to give you more attention since you're my little sister," replied Vert with a happy smile. She then proceeded to shove Nepgear's face into her breasts.

As this spectacle went on everyone kept their distance, either finding it too weird or awkward, or even both. Brian had stopped listening to Neptune and noticed the situation Nepgear was in.

"Um, is that normal, Neptune?" he asked the pudding loving Goddess.

Neptune stopped talking and looked at the direction Brian was pointing at, she saw the scene and was quick to jump up and start arguing with Vert.

"Hey! The hell do you think you're doing to Nep Jr?!" she shouted.

"I am merely showing her my affection, she is my little sister after all," replied Vert as continued to show 'affection' to Nepgear, who looked as if she needed air.

"She's gonna suffocate in those big melons of yours! Let her go, she's my lil' sis not yours!"

"Really? I was under the assumption that she was mine, not yours."

Brian shook his head and turned his attention to the conversation that occurred between him and Histoire after he managed to get to her office once he was 'saved' by IF.

* * *

"Can I come in, Histoire?" Brian asked as he knocked on her office door.

"Yes, you can come in," came the reply.

Brian opened the door to reveal Histoire surrounded by mountains of paper, she was furiously signing paper after paper with determination. She continued to continue her work even as Brian stood in the doorway with pity on his face.

"I can come back later if you need some more time to do … whatever it is you're doing," Brian suggested.

Histoire stopped signing the paperwork and looked up at Brian. "No, it's fine. I did say for you to come see me at some point after all."

"True. So, what did you want to talk to me about?"

"Not a lot, but I do have one question that the others forgot to ask; there seemed to have been a fight in a small clearing in Virtua Forest, it looked as if a major fight took place. Were you related to that in any way?"

"Hmm … was it in a south-east of the forest?"

Histoire nodded. "Well, that was where I was training with Wraith, I managed to get a bit faster and better with handling a sword," explained Brian.

"I see, so that's what happened," said Histoire.

"Anything else before I go back?" asked Brian.

"Yes, there is something else that I want to talk to you about. Are you aware of the Ancients?"

"Are they related to Gamindustri? If so then I wouldn't know."

"Very well then, I explain to you what they were."

Histoire then told Brian all that she knew about the Ancients, about how they were the first race of humans in Gamindustri, how they've left little of their culture behind, how they possessed the skill to absorb power and use it and then she mentioned the prophecy.

"What's this about a prophecy?" asked Brian.

"It is called The Prophecy of the Shadow Walker, it's somewhat cryptic yet I believe that it is important, nearly all of the first line of the prophecy has already occurred," replied Histoire.

She then told Brian the prophecy, he was stunned not only by just the name but what the last line said; 'The darkness shall cover all whilst destroying time less the Divines look upon the Shadow Walker, last of the ancients, to make the ultimate sacrifice'. He remembered that back when he was training he had given himself the name 'Shadow Walker', could the prophecy be talking about him or someone else that had the name 'Shadow Walker'?

 _Personally I hope it is me, I would like the chance to be a hero after all this time playing games that have me rolled as a hero foretold by legend. But what does it mean by 'to make the ultimate sacrifice'? If it is about me then I hope that this ultimate sacrifice isn't too much of a deal._

"That was certainly interesting, Histoire," Brian said. "So, was there anything else before I head back?"

"Not at the moment," replied Histoire.

"Well, good luck with all that paperwork."

"Thanks, sometimes I wish Neptune would just do this but she's too lazy to do anything that evolves work."

"Perhaps now that I'm here I could help change that, if she can even listen to me that is. Anyway, see ya."

"That remains to be seen, I wish you luck and farewell."

With that Brian closed the door and walked his way back to the main room where all the craziness was occurring.

* * *

Brian had processed all the information through his mind once again as he watched Neptune struggling to pull Nepgear away from Vert. He became a little concerned about the whole scene when he noticed that the others were ignoring it, except Uni who had an unsure look on her face. Since Uni was standing nearer to Brian than the other he decided to ask her a question.

"Hey, Uni, isn't it a bit concerning that no one else is helping Nepgear from being accidentally suffocated by Vert?" he asked her.

"Well, this usually happens so no one really minds it, except Neptune of course," replied Uni.

"But isn't Nepgear one of your best friends? Shouldn't you do something to get her out of her predicament?"

"W-well, it's not that care or anything, she can get out of it."

"Yep, just as I thought back in the hospital, you're a tsundere."

Uni glared at Brian while trying to keep her red face hidden. "Wh-wh-what?! I'm not a tsundere!"

"Yeah you are, it's shown in your actions especially right now. Don't get me wrong though, I have nothing against tsunderes, I find them quite unique."

Uni failed to say anything else after his comment and looked away from him, Brian did noticed that she was mildly blushing, possibly about what he had said. "But look at it this way; you're a mild tsundere while your older sister, Noire, is what I call a 'complete tsundere'."

"What do you mean 'mild tsundere'?" Uni asked while still not looking at him.

"I mean that you can show more of your feelings towards people while still acting as if you don't care some of the time," Brian replied.

Brian didn't see it but Uni was mildly smiling. "So anyway, talking about Noire, how are you two getting on?"

"Could be better, yet also could be worse," responded Brian. "Is she normally arrogant and prideful?"

"Yeah, sorry about that."

"No need to apologise, I'm a bit prideful as well yet I have a short annoyance fuse when it comes to arrogance." Brian frowned when he mentioned the word arrogance, he wasn't pleased with people, divine or not, if they had arrogance, yet he could lay it aside if they actually did something good.

"So anyway, what are your thoughts on all of us so far?" Uni asked curiously.

"Well, you already know of my thoughts on you and Noire, but I can add that you two seem like nice people even if Noire hides it. As for Neptune, well … she's lazy, sometimes loud, obnoxious and can only eat pudding from what I've seen, yet she is kind, caring and willing to help another when need. Nepgear is too apologetic yet she too is caring and kind, not to mention more mature. Vert is formal, mature to a degree and I'm not mentioning that chest of hers, yet from the display in front of us she looks to be very clingy. Rom is quiet and worries for others yet she gets dragged into Ram's pranks, as for Ram she's just a trouble maker but I guess she cares for others. Blanc too is quiet, can be reserved and likes books, yet she has anger issues. Compa is a sweet girl and very caring yet she is clueless some of the time and IF is knowledgeable, caring and vicious in a fight, but from what I saw over a week ago she can get flustered quickly. I doubt I know a lot about everyone so far yet I've managed to get a good idea on everyone's personalities."

"That was descriptive," remarked Uni after hearing all that Brian had to say. "Since we're talking about personalities, what's yours like?"

"I like peace and quiet, having a room full of books and games. I don't like doing much work and I dislike affection and socialising too much, which results in me having very little friends.," replied Brian.

"Oh, I didn't expect you disliked socialising and the fact that you have little to no friends," said Uni. "Just don't let Neptune hear about it though. Plus if you dislike socialising then why are you here?"

"I can tolerate this, after all didn't I say that I dislike socialising too much? That means that I can do some social business like this."

Uni chuckled for a few seconds. "You sound of Noire, Neptune, Vert and Blanc rolled into one guy, that's how I view you."

"Really? Interesting."

Just then Neptune managed to pull Nepgear out of Vert's grasp, leaving her somewhat disappointed. "I'm sure my sweet Nepgear would have preferred to have stayed in my loving grasp for a few more minutes."

"Nepu! She isn't yours, she's my Nep Jr!" yelled Neptune.

Nepgear was panting heavily as she was freed from Vert's bosom, Vert still seemed disappointed but shrugged it off as she smiled at Nepgear.

"Have no worry, we can share a sleeping bag together instead," Vert suggested.

"Hell no! She's coming in with me!" Neptune retorted.

As the two of them continued to bicker Nepgear was a bit dizzy as she stumbled across the room, it looked as if being subjected to Vert's breasts and nearly suffocating had affected her.

"I think it would be best if you 'comfort' Nepgear," Brian told Uni. "It looks as if she could collapse from the ordeal she went through."

Uni nodded and went over to Nepgear, leaving Brian by himself. He ate the last of his pudding and laid down on the couch, putting his arms behind his head and she closed his eyes, he was hoping that he could get some sleep before spending most of the night playing games. If there was something that he could put pride in, apart from reading quickly and playing games, it was sleeping where ever he is and no matter how loud it could be, to a degree of course, he couldn't sleep if everyone was too loud after all.

Nonetheless he failed in getting even a wink of sleep as a few minutes after he had closed his eyes he was interrupted by a voice that sounded like Compa. He opened his eyes slowly to see Compa and IF leaning over him, Compa being the closest of the two as her breasts where close to his face. Mildly daunted by the fact he moved away until he was sitting up straight on the couch.

"Yeah? Was there something you two need?" Brian asked.

"There isn't anything we need from you, Blue-Blue, we just wanted to chat with you," replied Compa.

"Oh, ok then, I suppose I can accommodate to that."

"Yay!" Compa looked happy with the response and immediately sat down next to Brian, IF took a nearby seat and placed it in front of Brian, where she sat down.

"Well then, how's your experience in Gamindustri so far?" IF asked Brian.

"It has been … hmm, what's the right word … interesting I'd say," replied Brian. "I wasn't expecting any sort of divine beings actually being real, though they sure do have their quirky personalities."

"You'll get used, don't you worry about it," said Compa.

"One other thing I wasn't expecting was those so-called Dark Captains coming along and nearly kill me, let along Wraith appearing with some fascinating powers," continued Brian.

"We weren't expecting that either, it isn't everyday some people from another dimension decide to come to our home and finish of their war here," said IF. "By the way, how are you going with those wounds?"

From the look of IF's face it looked as if she was actually concerned about him. He had heard that they were worried about him but this was the first time he had seen someone who looked deeply worried about him face-to-face.

"Well, I'm still getting very short bursts of pain, but it doesn't hurt much at all, by the way thanks for that, Compa," replied Brian. "And there isn't any need to worry about me, IF, I'm fine."

"I'm glad you're feeling a lot better, you worried us so much that IF nearly broke out in tears because of your condition," Compa commented, much to IF's dismay.

"Wh-what?! I wasn't going to burst into tears, that would be most unlike me!" yelled IF.

"No need to become a tsundere, IF, we've got enough already," chuckled Brian.

"I don't plan on becoming a tsundere, so don't go antagonising me about it," growled IF.

Compa chuckled at IF and Brian as they had their conversation, they seemed to be getting along well now that Brian had recovered sufficiently. Now everyone was getting ready to stay up late and play games till the morning dawn, at least Vert's case as everyone would fall asleep before the sun even appears. Much to Brian's surprise he felt as if he was enjoying himself, in fact he even considered telling everyone his real name but decided against it.

 _I could, but I won't tell them that my real name is Brian, not yet anyway. I'm not sure why I'm against telling them that but they've gotten used to calling me Blue, and I kinda like it that way. What does the future hold for me and this ragtag band of wack-out people?  
_

* * *

 **The Author here, if anyone is wondering about the setting the story takes place after the animation, just thought to let you all know in case you were wondering. Also leave a comment if you have any suggestions or whatnot and see you later in chapter 16.  
**


	17. The Shadow Walker Rises

**Chapter 16: The Shadow Walker Rises  
**

As expected, Vert was the only one who had managed to stay up the entire night and even appeared to have not been affected by the loss of sleep, everyone else fell asleep throughout different parts of the night; Rom and Ram were the first to go to sleep at around 10:12 PM, Compa followed suite at around 10:36 PM, Uni, Nepgear and IF fell asleep between 11:15 PM to 11:30 PM, Blanc then fell asleep at 11:53 PM followed by Noire at 12:07 AM. With only three people left they decided to play a different game and see how long they would last on that. Despite all her boasting Neptune fell asleep at 12:46 AM, leaving Brian and Vert do duel it out by playing a game that looked like the Gamindustri version of Call of Duty. However, Brian fell asleep at 1:23 AM, leaving Vert to play the campaign missions by herself for the rest of the night.

When Brian woke up he felt something warm on his lap and chest, he then noticed that he was laying down on the couch and he could hear Vert mumbling and the sounds of NPCs on the game crying out as guns blasted away. When Brian looked down at his chest he saw light purple hair in his way, it had two d-pad accessories and the head would slightly move when the certain purple haired person snored softly. When Brian moved his head to the left he saw the person's face; it was Neptune who was using Brian a pillow, she looked peaceful as she slept on him.

 _Why, in the name of all the Gods of Rome, is this pudding obsessed Goddess sleeping on me? Did I happen to get in her way last night after I fell asleep? Bah, who knows, I'm more concerned about the fact that she's on me and what would happen when she wakes up!_

His right hand began to twitch as he started to panic, he wasn't used to human contact even though he knew by now that he had to get used to it at some point, but what concerned him more was what Neptune would do once she wakes up and sees the situation they were in. He had heard that Neptune would get the wrong idea about certain situations sometimes.

 _Well, there's only one thing to do in this situation; go back to sleep. Hopefully I can get back to sleep before she wakes up, then I won't have to be beaten up. Even if I can't get back to sleep I can pretend that I am._

His hopes were dashed as he heard the sounds of yawning and felt Neptune move around on top of him, he then knew that she was waking up.

"Urgh … hey, what's this?" Neptune asked in a groggy voice.

She looked down at whatever she was laying on and found it very peculiar, she had been sleeping on Brian, this wasn't what she was expecting at all. She blushed madly before letting out a dreadful screech.

"KYAAAAAAAAAAA! You ain't having my body!"

And with all her might she hit Brian in the face, sending him into an unconscious state as the others woke up startled.

* * *

"Where … where am I?" Brian asked aloud.

He was standing in a ruined street and was surrounded by semi-destroyed buildings and corpses all along the street. He recognised the place; it was the nightmare that he had in the hospital before he woke up to find the CPU Candidates standing before him. And like before there were the corpses of the CPUs, the Candidates, IF, Compa and Histoire all laying about, mangled together or by themselves, but all were in puddles of blood.

"Why am I here again?!" Brian cried out to no one.

He looked up and, like before, he saw Agandur's Right Hand engulfed in the mist, but as Brian looked closely he saw something that he missed seeing the last time it occurred; there was a power symbol in the mist, it was faint so that explained why Brian failed to see it last time. He remembered Histoire talking to him about power symbols and Share Energy, so by putting the two together Brian figured out what the mist was made out off.

"Share Energy," he muttered to himself. "They're after the Share Energy that I am sure, if this nightmare is actually telling future events."

Why the Dark Captains were after Share Energy was beyond him, then Agandur's Right Hand disappeared into the mist and finally came the metal helmet with the iron crown. Brian noticed the mist turning red, as if the Share Energy had become corrupted.

That was when Brian became engulfed in the dark mist and everything became dark as the void. Like last time he flailed around as it crept into his system through his mouth, but unlike last time there was no voice talking to him. Even as his ordeal was happening he started to piece together where he had heard the voice from.

 _I've heard it before, and not just in the nightmare, it sounded like … Wraith! So it was Wraith that spoke to me … wait a moment, was he the one who gave me the nightmare after all? If that's true then I'm officially scared of his power._

Suddenly he returned to the carnage on the streets and the nightmare began all over again. "No … no, stop this. Damn you Wraith … you could've just told me about this! Well, I suppose I'll figure it out another time, to … hell with this damn … nightmare." Then a light appeared before him and he felt himself waking up.

* * *

"I think you may have hit him too hard, Neptune," said Vert.

"Well what else was I supposed to do? He was trying to steal my beautiful bod," Neptune retorted.

"You do realise I saw you crawling up onto him once he fell to sleep, I remember you saying in your sleep; 'Mmmm, nice and warm'," Vert said with a grin.

"WHAT?! Don't make that up!"

"I assure you that I didn't make it up, I even have a recording if you need proof."

"Umm … no thanks, I believe you for now."

They both heard a sigh from IF. "Neptune, don't blame Blue just because you found yourself sleeping on him, he probably didn't even know what to do in that situation."

"Well … umm …" stuttered Neptune.

The rest of the group had woken up once they heard Neptune screaming and found Brian with a bruise on the face and blood coming out of his nose, but after just hearing Neptune and finally Vert they had all come to the same conclusion; Neptune overreacted, again. Compa had managed to clean Brian's nose up and it was left to time to see how long it would take for Brian to wake up.

"No … no, stop this," Brian mumbled.

They all looked at him to see both of his hands were twitching and he was producing sweat, it became obvious that something was wrong with him but they were not sure what was wrong.

"Neptune, did you do something else to him while we were waking up?" asked Noire.

"Of course I didn't do anything else to him," replied Neptune. "All I did was punch him in the face."

"Could he be having a nightmare?" asked Nepgear.

"Possibly, he looks absolutely freaked out," responded Uni.

"… another time, to … hell with this …," continued Brian.

"Wake him up, he has to wake up now before he has a heart attack or something like it," Blanc demanded.

"Alright then, how about this …" said Neptune before she started to smack Brian across the cheeks. This didn't go down well for the rest of the group.

"You're just going to make it worse," sighed IF.

"Goodness, maybe that isn't the best way to wake him," said Nepgear.

"This always works, trust me," beamed Neptune as she continued to smack him.

Surprisingly it worked as they heard Brian groan and the twitch in his hands came to a stop, he struggled to open his eyes but when he did he saw Neptune's face right in front of him.

"What the … the hell are you doing so close to me?" asked Brian.

"I was waking you up," Neptune replied with a big smile.

"I won't ask how you did it, I've got an idea on how you did it, and it's painful."

"Oops, sorry 'bout that."

Neptune quickly got off Brian and stood up with the rest of the group who were surrounding the couch, Brian noticed that Vert had stopped playing her game and her attention was focused on Brian, as were the rest of the girls. This was attention that he was not used to and he felt uncomfortable.

"Um, are you lot alright? You're too quiet, even for a morning," Brian asked curiously.

"Well, after Neptune knocked you out you appeared to have been having a bad dream, a nightmare of sorts," explained Vert. "Your hands were twitching, you were sweating and you were saying some words that sounded as if you were in pain."

"Did I?," asked Brian.

 _I can't let them know about the nightmare, especially their role in it, I don't want them to be concerned about me. If there's one thing I despise it's people who are too concerned for me, they should be worried about themselves._

"Actually, that happens all the time, I had a check up with a doctor back on my world and he said that it was perfectly normal," lied Brian. "There isn't anything to be worried about."

It was obvious to him that his little explanation hadn't convinced them, but he hoped that it would stop them from enquiring too much about himself, he didn't like explaining himself to people. However, it looked as if his hopes had succeeded as the group hadn't asked any further questions after hearing his lie.

"Now with that out of the way, can I use a shower or a bath?" Brian asked. "I need a wash."

"Sure, I'll show you it and give you a towel," replied Nepgear.

"Ta very muchly," said Brian as he stood up and followed Nepgear down the corridor towards a bathroom. As they left the rest of the group weren't quite sure about Brian.

"He's lying, that's very clear," said Blanc. "But why is he lying?"

"Maybe that dummy doesn't trust us," grumbled Ram.

"But, why wouldn't he trust us?" asked Rom in her nervous tone.

"I don't think it's about trust, dear twins, perhaps it's a problem that he wants to keep to himself and if that is the case then we must respect that," said Vert.

"But we could help him ya know, we're buddies an' all," Neptune attempted to reason.

"I don't think he's the one who would ask for help or even accept it, unless it is about mundane tasks," explained IF.

"Well whatever is wrong with better not affect us, and it better not affect him afterwards," mumbled Noire. Uni nodded, agreeing with her statement.

* * *

The bathroom was big, bigger than he had thought it to be, there was a large bath of sorts that took up most of the space and a shower near it that took up a bit of space as well, the remaining room that was left had a mirror, sink and draws. Brian had decided to use the bath and see how that would go, and after five minutes he could say that is was relaxing, especially since he realised it was a steam bath.

"It's not bad, the wall colour isn't my type of colour but I suppose I can put up with it," Brian remarked as he looked at the light purple wall behind him.

As he relaxed in the bath he heard a knock on the door, which he was glad to lock as he didn't want any anime cliches occurring, but with a woman walking in on a man instead.

"Yeah, who is it?" Brian asked.

"Its-a-me, Neptune!" replied Neptune enthusiastically.

"Oh good, Mario references," sighed Brian. "What is it that you want this time? I'm taking a bath."

"Yeah I know that, but I just want to say … sorry for hitting you in the face," Neptune apologised. "I'll forgive you for trying to take my purity."

"I wouldn't even dare to do anything like that, and I wasn't even going to do anything!"

"Don't worry, I haven't called you a pervert, but I will if it happens again."

"I wasn't even doing anything damn it! You're just making it worse!"

He heard Neptune laugh uncontrollably, his image of her wasn't as good as it was before and now he began to pity everyone who happened to be near her.

"If I accept your apology will you go away?" he asked, hoping that she would just go away anyway.

"Yeah sure, I can leave … for now," replied Neptune. Brian could imagine the trolling look on her face at that moment.

"Fine then, I accept your apology."

"Yay! Now get out of that bath and get ready for the morning cause Nowa, mini Nowa, Blanny, the twins and Verty-poo are getting ready to leave."

Brian shook his head, he couldn't understand the nicknames that this lazy Goddess could come up with. He silently hoped that he didn't get a nickname that came from the mind of Neptune.

"Fine, I'll get ready."

He heard Neptune walking away from the door, which was something of a relieve for him as he believed that Neptune would stand by the door and wait for him to come out. Brian stepped out of the bath and began to dry himself as he looked in the mirror, he noticed how his hair had grown a bit longer and the stubbles of a beard were growing around his chin and between his nose and upper lip. He made a mental note to get a hair cut and some shaving gear. As he put on his black collared shirt, pants and brown trench coat he looked into his eyes once more, never realising that he would never look at it the same way ever again.

* * *

"Thanks for staying guys," beamed Neptune as Noire, Uni, Blanc, Rom, Ram and Vert stood on the balcony, ready to return to their nations. "The sleepover was just perfect!"

"Well of course it wouldn't have been good if I wasn't around," boasted Noire. "N-not that I actually wanted to be here of course, I was just needed to make it more lively."

"Yeah yeah whatever you say, Nowa," grinned Neptune.

"Grr, it's Noire, not Nowa! Get it right."

As Noire bickered with Neptune, who was having immense fun, Blanc looked at Brian. "Thanks for letting me read that book of yours, I found it rather interesting."

"No problem, pity I didn't take any more books with me," replied Brian.

"If you find yourself in Lowee stop by to see us in our Basilicom, I'll let you go through the library that I have."

"Sounds good, I'll look forward to it."

"Bah, who cares about books!" pouted Ram. "You should play with me and Rom instead!"

"I'll do that as well, how's that?" Brian suggested.

"Yay! Blue's gonna play with us!" shouted Ram.

"Yay … where going to play with Blue," said Rom.

Vert was the next one to approach Brian, he couldn't help but notice that her chest bounced as she stopped in front of him. "I had fun being around you, Blue, I'm sure we'll meet again. You should visit Leanbox someday and play a game with me, I'll train you to stay up all week without sleep."

"Very … enticing," responded Brian. "I'll remember that if I find myself there."

"Very good. Oh by the way, do you have an answer for who's breasts you prefer yet?"

Brian cringed, he had hoped that Vert would have forgotten about that little episode, but his luck had run dry once again. Blanc glared at Vert before looking back at Brian. "Damn Thunder Tits … Blue, you don't have to answer that right now, give it some time, it's a ridiculous question anyway."

"Hmm, I'm sure Blue would prefer big over pure flatness, my dear Blanc," Vert said with the biggest grin that Brian had seen on her face. The comment had the desired affect; Blanc transformed and materialised her axe, her blood-lust could be sensed by everyone on the balcony.

"I'll kill you where you stand!" White Heart shouted as she swung her axe at Vert, who transformed and blocked the attack with her spear.

"Oh really? Are you sure you can do it, Goddess of Flatness?" Green Heart taunted.

Brian hadn't seen their transformations so he was surprised too see it, but in his mind it made sense for them to transform as he had seen Nepgear transform back in Virtua Forest, but what surprised him the most was the change in personalities, especially in Blanc's case. He was becoming annoyed as he saw the to of them fight it out on the balcony, ignoring everyone else and their protests.

"That's enough!" Brian shouted at the top of his lungs.

That got everyone's attention, they never heard Brian shout like that before. "If you two have to have a duel do it over an online game, that way no one gets killed."

"Hmm, an astute idea. Our minds think alike, Blue," praised Green Heart.

"Well, I guess I can agree to that, but it's bloody annoying that I can't teach her a lesson right here right now," grumbled White Heart.

With that out of the way everyone else who was leaving transformed, leaving only one question in Brian's mind; why do they wear swimsuits as a form of armour? Perhaps it was for the best that he didn't know, it was just plot convenience he decided.

"Hey, Blue, you should come and see us in Lastation … not that it's an invitation or anything, you just need to see more of Gamindustri, that's all," suggested Black Heart in her tsundere way.

"If you're in Lastation I can teach you how to use a gun, it would be nice for someone else to actually use one," said Black Sister.

"I'll remember that, don't worry," replied Brian.

The group then flew off into the sky and towards their nations, leaving Brian, Neptune, Nepgear, IF and Compa on the balcony.

* * *

"Good, they've gone back to their nations, now all is left is to wait until the local Goddesses leave, then we'll strike," Kharzark whispered to Lothar.

"You don't have to tell me twice you know," grumbled Lothar.

The two of them had been hiding in an apartment building after getting into the city by the use of the sewers so they didn't cause any commotion with the local populace. Right now Lothar was loosing patience while Kharzark held onto the Share Energy Container, waiting for the moment to strike.

"Hey, some more of 'em have left the … whatever it is," Lothar reported. "Ain't those two the Goddesses?"

Kharzark walked over to Lothar's position by the window and peered outside at the two girls he was pointing at, he recognised them by the description that their followers had given them beforehand.

"Those two are definitely the Goddesses, let them be, we are after their source of power, we're not here to kill them," said Kharzark.

"Hmph, fine then. I hope you know what you're doing, disfigured guy," grumbled Lothar.

Kharzark threw a glare at Lothar, but managed to sustain his anger, he needed to stay focused on the mission ahead and that was to use the Share Energy Container to absorb the Share Energy of Planeptune.

* * *

"Good luck," said Brian as he, Neptune, Nepgear, IF and Compa stood outside the Basilicom. "Don't get injured and whatnot."

"Don't you worry about me, Bluey-Blue, I'm the main protagonist therefore I can't possibly loose!" boasted Neptune.

Brian's hopes were dashed as Neptune had given him a nickname; 'Bluey-Blue', he wasn't fond of it but knowing Neptune he'll have to get used to it in the future.

"Remember, Blue, our house is down those two street over there, once you're there get some rest," IF said as she pointed.

"I'd rather get some Guild quests done instead of resting, I've been doing enough of that," moaned Brian.

"Blue-Blue, you need to get more rest, your body is still recovering form the injuries you sustained over a week ago along with the punch and slaps you got this morning," explained Compa.

Brian couldn't argue with a nurse, even if she does a bad job with bandaging up patients. "Alright then, I submit, I'll get some rest once I recover my weapons."

With final goodbyes the group split, Brian heading to Compa's house to recover his weapons and to get some rest while the others went to the Guild, the only reason Neptune was going with them was because of Histoire. Enough said.

It didn't take long for Brian to get to Compa's house and open it with the key she gave him, he entered and found his sword and throwing knives on the table. With a grin he picked them up and strapped them onto him, but as he strapped his sword on he realised he forgot to take his book with him. With a sigh he left the house after grabbing an apple to eat, locked the door and made his way to the Basilicom.

But when he got back he saw something unusual, two Basilicom guards were lying dead on the ground, one was decapitated while the other had been crushed in several places. Looking inside he saw another dead guard and heard the sounds of combat, he drew his sword and ran into the Basilicom. After running down a corridor he saw three guards struggling in a loosing battle against two men, one of them Brian recognised. Two of the Dark Captains were there, Lothar and Kharzark, and they were slaughtering the guards one after another. Brian pulled out a throwing knife before seeing a dying guard by his feet, tugging him by his pants.

"Y-you … you've got to tell Hi-Histoire about thi-is … she needs to inform the Goddesses …" He then died.

Brian knew that Histoire would know what's going on either way, so he knew what he had to do; put his training to the test. He threw his knife at Lothar once the rest of the guards were dead, the knife his the bulky man in the left shoulder.

"Gah! What the bloody hell?!" he yelled as he turned around and noticed Brian standing nearby with two more throwing knives in his hands as his sword laid on the ground.

"Well well well, so you did survive after all, what a pity, but I guess I can have some fun with you," Lothar said with blood-lust. He gripped his war-hammer tightly and glanced back at Kharzark. "You get the energy, I'll deal with the boy."

Kharzark nodded and entered the room that the fight had taken place, Brian couldn't see much of it but could tell that it was big, really big and dark. He focused his attention back to Lothar and threw his knives at him, both being blocked by the war-hammer.

"Come on, can't you do better than that?" taunted Lothar as he charged at Brian, his war-hammer raised above his head.

Brian threw one more knife at Lothar, it managed to hit his right hand. Brian then picked up his sword and was quick to block Lothar's attack. "Ah, so you've managed to block an attack for once, eh?"

"Grr, just shut up!" Brian yelled as he sidestepped Lothar and swung his sword into the Dark Captain's right waist, slicing up to the arm. Lothar didn't expect this to happen, plus he had used up too much strength in dealing with the guards. He grunted as Brian dodged his attack, but a quick swoop of his leg sent Brian falling to the ground.

Brian had to roll all over the floor to avoid the war-hammer strikes that followed, he caught a glimpse of the other Captain shaking a metal box around while he stood near a large power symbol that floated in the air.

 _So that's what they're after, Share Energy, so my nightmare actually meant something after all. I have to stop them at any cost!_

He rolled away from another attack and was in striking distance of slicing Lothar's leg, he swung his sword around and it made a sickening sound as it cut through flesh and muscle.

"What the hell?! Damn you boy!" Lothar yelled as he fell to one knee and began to pull Brian's sword out of his leg. Brian had left his sword embedded in Lothar's leg and grabbed hold of two throwing knives before charging and Kharzark, who didn't seem to be bothered at all. He struck Brian across the left arm before kicking him in the face.

"Stay back and let my companion kill you. Now, how does this work? Agandur's Right Hand could have at least told me how it worked. Bastard."

Suddenly he got an idea, he hung his sword-arm over the circle on the box and let the blood drip into it for a second, then the box glowed a bright colour, then a beam from the keyhole and enveloped around the Share Energy, the beam disappeared and the Share Energy began to leave the power symbol and flowed quickly towards the box.

"Ah, so that's how it's done," remarked Kharzark.

Suddenly he felt two throwing knives hitting him in the right waist and the upper right arm, he flinched and saw Brian run in between the Share Energy and Kharzark. Brian wasn't sure why he was doing this but he believed that it could stop it, he knew that if the Share Energy was to disappear then Neptune and Nepgear would be in mortal danger. What he didn't expect was the Share Energy to flow around his body before he became engulfed in it and, much to his, Lothar's and Kharzark's surprise, an explosion occurred, encasing the Sharicite Room in blue energy that disappeared soon after.

Much of the room and the other rooms and corridors that led to the reception area had been destroyed, in the centre of the former explosion stood Brian who stared at Lothar and Kharzark, who had survived the explosion mostly unscathed. What was new was Brian's eyes; they were flaring bright blue and bright blue engulfed his body, this was the Share Energy. Brian looked at the two Captains and a twisted grin formed on his face.

"This ... is ... true power!" Brian shouted as he charged at Kharzark, his right fist covered in Share Energy. The legend of Brian the Shadow Walker had begun.


	18. Destruction at the Basilicom

**Chapter 17: Destruction at the Basilicom**

"HAA! This is easy," boasted Neptune as she cleaved her way through a group of lizard men.

Neptune and the gang had taken a mission to clear out a cave of lizard men who had been harassing the trade routes and a nearby village near the Planeptune-Lowee border, so far they had been fighting the creatures for around ten minutes and there hadn't been as much as IF thought there would be.

"I don't know, Neppy, I think the battle has only begun," said IF.

Her instincts where correct as over two dozen lizard men came out of the shadows and prepared to attack. Neptune looked at the scene around her and let out a small chuckle.

"This is easy, me and Nep Jr will just transform and deal with the monsters," said Neptune.

Nepgear nodded, a determined look on her face as a bright light engulfed Neptune and Nepgear, when the light disappeared Purple Heart and Purple Sister stood in their place, their weapons in their hands with determined and stern looks on their faces.

"Alright then, let's do this," said Purple Heart before she gripped her sword tightly and charged straight at the largest group of lizard men.

She was followed quickly by Purple Sister and together the two sisters began to carve their way through the lizard men, slicing and dicing them elegantly. IF covered their rear as she slashed with fury against the monsters, Compa was covering for her with a giant syringe, where she managed to hide it no one knew. With renewed vigour they took down most of the lizard men, their corpses turning into pixels before disappearing. After several minutes only a few lizard men remained, but unlike before they had started to back off down a path that led further into the cave.

"Let's finish them off," said Purple Heart.

As the others nodded and prepared to charge a loud roar was heard and the ground shook, the group looked behind the surviving lizard men and saw what they wished they had not expected to see; an ancient dragon. What surprise them even more was that the ancient dragon wasn't attacking the lizard men, instead it was helping them by preparing to attack Purple Heart and the others.

"Goodness, that isn't normal," said Purple Sister, her voice dripped in nervousness. "Why is it helping them? Normally it would attack them."

"I'm not sure of it myself, but something weird is going on," remarked IF. "I say we fall back, we wouldn't be able to get through a fight with an ancient dragon and several lizard men in one piece."

"I'm sure we can handle it, we just need to stay focused …" Purple Heart began to say, but she was interrupted by a sudden pain in her gut and chest, she bent over and rubbed her gut but the pain increased. Se looked over to see Purple Sister in the same kind of pain as well, she was on her knees and was gasping for air.

"What's going on with you two? What's wrong?" IF asked the two Goddesses.

"I … I don't know," replied Purple Sister in pain.

Purple Sister then turned back into her human form, she looked confused at what happened, the same thing happened to Purple Heart. The pain had increased for the two of them and they fell to the ground, they were mumbling quietly as they tried to hug themselves. IF looked shocked at the scene in front of her and looked at Compa to give her an order.

"Compa, take a look at them and see what's wrong, I'll buy you some time to get them out," ordered IF.

"But what will happen to you, Iffy?" asked Compa, she was just as worried as IF.

"I … I don't know, just get on with it," replied IF as she ran towards the lizard men and the ancient dragon and shouted. " **Demonic Inferno!"**

As IF attempted to hold the monsters back Compa took a look at Neptune and Nepgear, she attempted to figure out what was wrong but after feeling their heartbeats, their pulse and checked their eyes but couldn't understand what was wrong, the only thing she could recognise was their temperature was high, extremely high, so she could tell that was an extreme fever. Compa looked behind her at the fight and saw that IF was being slowly pushed back, she had managed to defeat two more lizard men but had been injured by the ancient dragon.

"Gah! Compa! Get them out of here, now!" IF shouted.

"B-but I can't leave you behind," retorted Compa.

"Just do it! I can't hold on much longer!"

IF was then smashed by the tail of the ancient dragon, sending her against the wall of the cave. She grunted as she attempted to stand up but failed as her legs gave way and she fell on her butt. Wincing in pain she looked up and saw the dragon looking down at her, it was prepared to strike the final killing blow, IF looked at Compa who was being surrounded by the remaining lizard men, all of whom seem to ready for action.

"I'm sorry, Histoire, Neptune, Nepgear, Compa, Blue, everyone," IF mumbled.

As she waited for the final blow she heard something, or rather someone, shout at the ancient dragon and the lizard men. "Hey, you beasts! Get over here!"

The attention of the dragon and the lizard men were focused on the stranger who stood nearby, how IF and Compa didn't noticed him at all left confusion in their minds, but the stranger was someone they recognised, even if they had only met him twice, the flaring blue and red eyes gave it away. The stranger was none other than The Wraith.

"Let's see … three lizard men and one ancient dragon, easy," Wraith said to himself.

"How … how did you know we were here?" asked Compa.

"Later. Leave them to me, it'll only take two minutes … literately," replied Wraith.

IF and Compa saw dark blue and red energy appear around Wraith, the blue on his right side and the red on his left, it wasn't a bright colour just merely faint, yet it made the monsters take full notice of him and the lizard men began to back off.

"Oh, I'm not letting you three get away," said Wraith, he sounded as if his voice was dripped in venom.

He then ran towards the lizard men and punched one on the face while giving a kick to another in the chest at the same time, he then twirled around and broke the necks of the two lizard men before rushing towards the last one, tripped it over and curve stomped its head into the ground. Afterwards he quickly rushed towards the ancient dragon and dodged the swipes of its claws, Wraith grabbed the tail and climbed up to the head of the dragon where he then materialised his ghost sword and began to repeatedly stab it into the head of his opponent.

This spectacle didn't take long as the dragon died, disappearing into pixels along with the rest of the lizard men. As Wraith jumped to the ground and landed next to IF she could sense the grin underneath his scarf.

"Well, was it two minutes?" Wraith asked IF.

"Actually, it was two minutes thirty," replied IF.

"Huh, I must be getting slow," mumbled Wraith.

"Wait, you could go faster than that?" asked IF. "You killed the four of them more quickly than any CPU would."

"I could go faster, it is true, and as for how I can manage it … well, you can figure it out," responded Wraith.

He quickly looked around him, as if he had scented someone else in their vicinity, but after glancing around for a few seconds he shrugged his shoulders before walking over to Compa and looked at Neptune and Nepgear, be bent down and picked Neptune up bridal style before looking at Compa.

"Are you able to pick her up by yourself?" he asked Compa.

Compa nodded and picked up Nepgear in the same way, Wraith turned around and glanced at IF who had gotten back on her feet while gripping her left arm to ease the pain. She walked over to the others and together they all walked back the way they came from. IF had many questions she wanted to ask Wraith, the first one was on her mind as well as Compa's.

"Hey, Wraith, do you know what's wrong with Neptune and Nepgear?" IF asked him.

"Yes, I do know. They've lost nearly all of their Share Energy, that's why they have appear to have a fever," replied Wraith. "They're lucky, there's a chance that all of the Share Energy could have gone, then they would be close to death."

Both IF and Compa were stunned by the answer, it wasn't something they had been expecting. "But how is that possible?! How could nearly all of their Share Energy disappear in a single instance?" asked IF, nearly yelling as she asked Wraith.

"I didn't say disappear, I said they lost nearly all of it."

"Then were did it all go?" asked Compa.

"That's a question that you might want to see for yourself," replied Wraith, he seemed slightly hesitant as he answered. "And once you do see it, don't jump to conclusions."

"What do you mean 'don't jump to conclusions'? What are we going to see?" asked IF, unsure whether she wanted to know.

"I think it's better if you saw the situation for yourself," replied Wraith.

The conversation died soon afterwards as IF and Compa were worried about what was happening back in Planeptune. Once the group had reached outside the cave Wraith walked over to a tree and laid Neptune by it.

"There, that should do it," said Wraith. "Take care of them now."

As he began to walk off IF ran to him and stepped in front of him. "Where do you think you're going? We need your help right now," IF asked.

"No, you don't need my help right now, you can take care of Neptune and Nepgear for now," replied Wraith.

"So I can't change your mind then, very well. But can I ask one more question?"

"Yeah, what is it?"

"How did you know where we would be, and why did you help?"

"I happened to be passing by when I heard that roar and decided to investigate, now I'm glad that I did, I was almost close to saying to myself; 'nah screw it'," Wraith responded. "And as for why I helped you, well … I see helping people in certain times as a way to amend myself for past sins, broken promises, torn friendships."

He looked away from IF, but she could see a single tear flow from his left eye, clearly it was a touchy subject for him. IF sighed and moved out of his way.

"Sorry for asking about that, Wraith, I'll let you be on your way."

Wraith nodded and continued to walk towards the north. IF summarised that he was heading to Lowee, why he wanted to go there of all times wasn't her problem. She then had a thought, a question, and hoped that when she asked Wraith this last question he wouldn't get annoyed, she would hate to see him annoyed.

"Sorry to bother you but I have one last question; did your friends ever forgive you for whatever you did?"

Wraith stopped but did not turn around to look at her. "Yes, they did, but only in words, I could tell that deep down in their hearts that they still mistrusted me and possibly even hated me."

Wraith then continued walking towards the border while IF returned to Compa, who had been looking after Neptune and Nepgear. It was time to return to Planeptune and see what awaited them.

* * *

The five of them had left the cave after the slaughter of the lizard men and the ancient dragon, leaving behind nothing to salvage at all. Suddenly a figure came out of a small hole near the site of the fight; it was Severia the Stoic, one of the Dark Captains. She looked at the path the group had left and merely shrugged her shoulders.

"Oh well, that was just a minor inconvenience, but at least we know now that we can bind monsters to our will," she muttered to herself.

She had been sent by Agandur's Right Hand to try and see if the binding spells they found in a cache that dated back to the Ancient Era could work on the monsters of Gamindustri, so Severia decided to test it on the biggest monster she could find; an ancient dragon. It took a little while to find the location of one over during the week but she had manage to find a cave near the Planeptune-Lowee border and found an ancient dragon slumbering within, it took up a lot of her strength and stamina but after a while she had successfully used the spell to make the dragon her very own servant, essentially. The appearance of the lizard men was just an added bonus as their willpower was weaker to that of an ancient dragon.

"But I should have expected someone from the Guild to come here to clear out the infestation," Severia muttered to herself. "At least it doesn't matter now, I've mastered the binding spell and that is more important to me than binding some creatures to our cause. I suppose I should report my success to the Right Hand."

She reached into a satchel and pulled out a small phone, she flipped it open and spent the next two minutes attempting to figure out how to use it. She never quite agreed with the idea to use the technology available to them even though it made practical sense, but she couldn't understand how to use most of what is available to them, the phone was something that only the Gods and Goddesses from her dimension could have visualised she reasoned. Severia managed to finally work out how to make a call and quickly punched in the phone number of Agandur's Right Hand. They had recieved their phones after the Right Hand encountered a useful informant from the Guild, but that was a while ago and no one had discovered what happened to her.

"Are you receiving me?" Severia asked.

"What do you want? I hope it's something good," replied Agandur's Right Hand.

"It depends on how you look at it. I have now mastered the binding spell, but it only works in monsters, not humans."

"I thought as much. Do you have the monsters with you?"

"No, a group of people that we encountered a while back killed them off, Wraith was amongst them."

She could hear Agandur's Right Hand sigh in disbelief and rage. "So then, anything else before I go?"

"No, that's it, but I did noticed that the Goddesses of Planeptune were in the group, but something happened to them. They were in their HDD forms but suddenly they looked as if they were in pain and reverted back to human form before loosing conciousness, that's when The Wraith showed up."

"Hmm, that would mean that Lothar and Kharzark actually did it, they used the Share Energy Container and stole the Share Energy of Planeptune."

"I'll leave you to it then, I'll be on my way to the next assignment." Severia then ended the call and proceeded to leave the cave, she had a mission to do in Lowee.

* * *

Kharzark had little time to dodge the attack, instead he stood his ground and lunged his sword-arm forward at Brian, meanwhile Lothar got back onto his feet and ran at Brian, preparing to smash his skull in.

Brian swooped around the spiky blade and kicked Kharzark in the gut before punching him on the left side of his head, sending him to the ground. Lothar swung his weapon at Brian shouting, " **Pounding Death!** "

Like the last time they fought Brian was hit by the attack, but this time he couldn't block it, instead he took it full force and was send spiralling out of the room and into a crumbling wall, destroying it fully.

"That should have got the prick," Lothar grinned.

His hopes were dashed as Brian stood back up, his coat was torn in different places and blood trickled from the wounds beneath but apart from that he seemed quite the same.

"Pah, is that all you got?" taunted Brian. "Last time you almost broke my back, now you hit like an old man."

Brian was then quick to pull out two throwing knives and encase them in Share Energy before throwing them at Lothar, who was charging at him. One knife hit Lothar in the right leg while the other impaled his right elbow, but this didn't stop Lothar as he swung his war-hammer at Brian who ducked at the last minute but was then subjected to a savage kick in the chin from Lothar. The kick had the desired affect as Brian's head was forced up, leaving him vulnerable to another war-hammer strike, which happened as Lothar brought his weapon around and smashed it against Brian, hurdling him towards the reception area.

"Heh, lucky shot mister," grumbled Brian as he spat blood on the ground.

As Brian attempted to stand up a shout was heard behind Lothar, " **Fireball**!" The fireball exploded next to Brian, scorching him as well as sending him outside the Basilicom.

"I could have taken care of him, Kharzark," grumbled Lothar.

"I just wanted payback," retorted Kharzark. "Now let's finish him off."

The two of them began to walk calmly outside, ignoring the corpses of the guards and the destruction that was brought upon the Basilicom. Hiding nearby was Histoire who had only saw what happened when Brian and Lothar began their little duel, she couldn't believe what she had saw with her own eyes; Brian had absorbed nearly all of the Share Energy of Planeptune, causing him to increase his strength and speed, but the way he grinned and fought the Dark Captains, it was … terrifying, he seemed malevolent in a way.

"I need to inform everyone else," muttered Histoire as she began to call Nepgear on her N-Pad, but when the call was answered she was surprised who answered it.

"IF? Where's Nepgear? And Neptune for that matter?" asked Histoire.

IF sighed and turned the N-Gear around, letting Histoire get a good view of Neptune and Nepgear against a tree, panting and sweating, they were still in pain. IF turned the N-Gear back to her to get a view on Histoire, she looked sorrowful and full of grief.

"What's going on, Histoire? Something had happened to Neptune and Nepgear that's, according to Wraith, got something to do with the Share Energy, they're in pain and don't seem to be waking up any time soon, plus you look horrible … not your overall appearance of course," asked IF.

"Something is happening here right now, two of the Dark Captains have attacked the Basilicom not long ago and the guards … they …," Histoire began to explain but began to get a little teary when she mentioned the guards.

"Skip that bit then, but what's happening?"

"They were after the Share Energy, they were close to capturing it with a small box, but then Blue got in the way after a short fight and … he absorbed nearly all of the Share Energy and now … he's fighting the Dark Captains by using the Share Energy."

IF and Compa were stunned by what Histoire had said. Brian had absorbed the Share Energy and was using it to combat the Dark Captains, now they understood what Wraith meant, at least they now knew that Brian wasn't fully at fault. "Wait a moment, I thought only the Ancients could do that," IF exclaimed.

Histoire nodded. "I now strongly believe that Blue is an Ancient, whether he knew of this or not is up to debate, but you must get here as soon as possible, try your best to get Neptune and Nepgear here in one piece."

Histoire then hung up, unsure what to do except to call the armed forces and attempt to get them to help Brian, but she was unsure what would happen if everyone in the city saw Brian and the power he now had. As she prepared to call the army the clashing of metal could be heard and the sounds of yelling and explosions were also heard. She had to act now.

* * *

"This is it, prepare to die filth!" yelled Lothar as he jumped and brought his war-hammer down into the ground. " **Hammer of Fury!** "

The pavement split apart and bursts of flame shot forth, Brian had gotten back onto his feet and had dodged the attack, barely, he was beginning to get overly tired and found it hard to focus on his surroundings, at times it began to blur then it would go away.

 _Damn, must be a side effect of absorbing the Share Energy, but how did I even manage that at all? Well whatever, I need my sword for a technique that I want to use on these guys._

As he dodged desperately from the swings of Lothat's war-hammer and the fireball explosions from Kharzark he glanced around, looking for his sword. He then saw his sword by the Basilicom entrance. Quickly encasing his left fist in Share Energy and grabbing a throwing knife in his right hand he ducked a swing from Lothar before stabbing the hammer wielding man and punching him in the face. With Lothar on the ground Brian rushed past a swipe from Kharzark's sword-arm and finally reached the entrance, he grabbed his sword and swung it at Kharzark, who parried it with his weapon.

"Tell me, boy, who are you?" Kharzark grudgingly asked.

"I am the … Shadow Walker … last … of the Ancients," replied Brian. He was loosing strength, but he had enough for the technique he wanted to try.

With a quick sidestep he kneed Kharzark in the gut before smashing the pummel of his sword into the neck of his opponent, sending him down onto the ground. The three of them were becoming too tired to carry on the fight, they had spent most of their strength and stamina beforehand.

"Well, one last … attack before I pass out," mumbled Brian, he was beginning to pass out already.

Kharzark stood up near Lothar and the two of them panted slowly, the end game was coming, they could feel it. Their opponent, the Shadow Walker, looks as if he would lose consciousness at any time while they themselves were running out of breath, plus Kharzark was continuously glancing at different streets to look for an escape route to the sewers and to look for incoming armed personel.

"Hey, the hell is up with him?" asked Lothar.

Kharzark resumed his attention towards Brian and noticed that something was up with him; he was channelling energy through his sword until the blade fiercely glowed bright blue. As Brian looked up at them he had his twisted grin back on his face.

"Get ready for pain, wretches," growled Brian. He then turned the blade upside down and stabbed the ground with it, the blade piercing the pavement and digging into the dirt beneath as he shouted, " **Shattering Earth!** "

To everyone around them it felt as if a small, contained, earthquake had hit them, the ground splintered apart and as it spread across the ground cracks appeared along the Basilicom walls and also along the walls of nearby buildings. Share Energy then burst forth from the ground, finding their mark upon Lothar and Kharzark as the Share Energy smashed into them.

After the attack Brian pulled his sword out of the ground and fell to one knee while Kharzark, the least wounded of the two, stood up again and inspected the damage done to himself; cracks and broken pieces of his armour could be seen, several rips in his robes, blood flowed from several puncture and slash wounds, plus his mask had a crack down the left side. Lothar wasn't in any better condition as he had taken most of the brunt of the last attack, in fact he was in a much worse condition that Kharzark was.

Kharzark glanced at a street and saw soldiers running towards the Basilicom, he could even swear that there was a tank somewhere in the background. He looked back at Brian and saw him panting for air while gripping the side of his head with his left hand, clearly he was unfit for further combat for the day, it still spooked Kharzark and Lothar that Brian's eyes were still glowing fiercely but at least the energy around his body had died down.

"Lothar, we're getting out of here, now," snarled Kharzark.

Lothar grunted as he used his war-hammer as a walking stick and together the two men began to use the last of their energy by running away from the scene, leaving citizens in awe, shock and utter disbelief at what they had just witnessed, many were also afraid of what Brian could, or would, do if he managed to cause even more destruction than before.

Brian looked up and saw the two Dark Captains making a run for it as soldiers began to get closer, he grinned as he glanced at the destruction around him. "Heh … I went all out … not … bad," muttered Brian before he passed out on the ground. The last image he saw before he lost consciousness was several soldiers looking at him, whether in shock or disgust, and what sounded like Histoire calling out to him.

* * *

 **Notes: Now we've got into the action part of the story, and if you didn't notice I'm not good at coming up with fight scenes, I'm more better with battles between armies. I've also put up the bios for my Ocs on my profile.**

 **Thanks to those who have favourite, followed, viewed and commented this story, and once again leave a comment if you have suggestions, ideas or anything else, keep reading future chapters and thanks again.**


	19. Reminiscing and an Old Friend

**Chapter 18: Reminiscing and an Old Friend**

It was easy to tell once you were in Lowee, the ground was usually covered in snow and a sense of serenity could be felt throughout the country. Despite Lowee being the most technologically backwards it was one of the more peaceful nations, and was also noted to have some of the most literate people of Gamindustri within its borders due to the number of libraries that Blanc/White Heart had set up. On the outskirts of the city stood a solitary figure on a small snowy hill, trees stood nearby and swayed with the blowing breeze, sending the black coat of the figure to sway with it.

"Ah, I missed Lowee. Truly, it is one of the most peaceful nations that I have encountered throughout my travels," mumbled Wraith. "It is nice to have peace and quite in your life, no matter how screwed your life had been."

After Wraith had saved IF and Compa from being turned into minced meat and assisted in getting Neptune and Nepgear out of the cave he had headed north to Lowee, he had two reasons for visiting Lowee; One, he wanted to have some quiet time away from everything and two, he keeping an eye on the current situation. He knew what had happened in Planeptune and knew that it would only be a matter of time before the rest of Gamindustri would suffer the same fate.

Lowee held a special place in his heart, he remembered when he was much, much younger that Lowee was somewhere he considered to retire if he ever got old enough, it just had the right atmosphere for him. Wraith knew that he had to be careful however, especially since the Goddess of Lowee hadn't taken a liking to him ever since their encounter back in Planeptune.

With a sight he walked over to a tree and laid against it, he needed some sleep, but right then was the best time to do it; the voice in his head was attempting to speak to him again, and she wasn't alone. With a groan he got into a comfortable position and drifted of to sleep, hoping that the little 'talk' in his mind wouldn't take up a lot of energy.

* * *

"Well, what is it?" Wraith asked, obviously annoyed. "This better be good, I was enjoying a good view of the city of Lowee."

A black void surrounded him and three different coloured shades, all of whom he wasn't pleased to meet again. The shade to his right was made of a purple-red colour and was the one Wraith dubbed the 'crazy woman'. The shade to his centre was a purple-black colour, this one he had difficulty in sealing back in his youth and caused him a large amount of trouble, this one he dubbed the 'psychopathic woman'. The shade to his left had a blood red colour and, unlike the 'crazy woman' or the 'psychopathic woman', was properly sealed away, he didn't have a nickname for this fellow.

"Well, aren't you going to answer me?" he asked again.

"We just wanted to say hello, is it rude to ask our vessel that?" asked the 'crazy woman'.

"No, it isn't rude, but I'm not a vessel, I just happened to seal you three away within my mind, and that took a while."

"Hmph, whatever you say. But isn't it just great that you're back in Lowee? If I just search through your memories I can see that you happen to like Lowee more than the other nations, correct?"

"I like all the nations equally, I don't choose one over the other."

"Yes, that is true, you always preferred equality haven't you? You couldn't just choose one over the other, your indecisiveness was a weakness if I'm not mistaken."

A snigger could then be heard from the 'psychopathic woman', who was only partially sealed. "Oh yes, he did prefer that didn't he? Just like those friends of yours way back, eh?"

"Shut up, psycho, I didn't ask for your input didn't I? Asked Wraith with a vicious tone.

"Bah, you wouldn't have survived the first hundred years of your life if it hadn't been for us and yet again you attempt to insult and threaten me? Oh dear I'm so scared," informed the 'psychopathic woman' with a sarcastic tone.

"It was because of you that people died, it was because of you that lives were ruined, it was because of you that destruction was brought upon the innocent and I suffered with the sins of it all for over a thousand years," grumbled Wraith. "Do you even care about anything?"

"Well, I did care about you once, don't you remember?" reminded the 'psychopathic woman'. "It was a long time ago for me, but I accepted you for what you were and yet here I am now in this damn situation because of you."

Wraith sighed and paced around the void, he was getting sick and tired of it all. It had taken him quite some time to seal them all away in his mind, all through shear willpower in the end, but the 'psychopathic woman' did have a point; she did care for him once, just like his old friends had and just like them he betrayed them all.

"I wonder if we shall ever see our past selves while we're here," mentioned the 'crazy woman'.

"Oooo, imagine what we could do if we met out past selves, just think of it; a whole new timeline, a paradox. Hahahahahahaha hahaha ha!" laughed the 'psychopathic woman'.

"I preferred your human, psycho, at least I could tolerate her," groaned Wraith. "Plus I wouldn't allow you two to take over my body and disrupt the timeline, it's already being hard enough to maintain right now."

He heard the 'psychopathic woman' sigh. "My human form is just a bitch, she would submit to anything, not to mention she's a coward."

"Transform. Do it," commanded Wraith, he was loosing patience with this psycho girl.

"Urgh, fine then," moaned the 'psychopathic woman'. A thin shimmer of dark light covered the purple-black shade which only lasted for a few seconds, after the dark light disappeared it looked as if nothing had changed, until she spoke.

"Um … is this better?" the 'psychopathic woman' asked, her voice had become softer and more timid, to a degree.

"Well, at least you don't want to kill me in that form, even if I can't actually see any of your true forms," replied Wraith.

"Anyway, can we at least get to see our past selves?" asked the 'crazy woman'.

"No, I can't risk it, especially since I know what you lot would do, bloody gits," responded Wraith.

"I'm sorry about all of this, I'm sorry I'm sorry!" apologised the 'psychopathic woman'.

Wraith sighed and face-palmed himself, he wasn't quite sure where this conversation would be going now. "This is getting tiring. You don't need to keep apologising you know."

"Whatever. Anyway, I suppose it's time for you to wake up now, we'll meet again soon …. hmm, what is it that you call yourself these days?," asked the 'Crazy woman'.

"I go by the name The Wraith, any other name that I once used no longer belong to me as I have cast them aside. That includes my real name," snarled Wraith.

The black void slowly began to disappear as Wraith felt himself waking up, looking at the three shades he saw them starting to fade away. The last thing he heard before he woke up was the 'crazy woman' saying, "There's no need to be like that you know, you need us before the end, you know that well."

As Wraith was waking up he groaned about the thought of having a major headache that he knew that would plague him for a while, perhaps for even a day or two, he had to be careful about it. As he began to open his eyes a thought went through his head.

 _I wonder though, isn't it today that_ he _shows up?_

* * *

"Iffy, I'm worn out, how far is it until we reach Planeptune?" asked Compa.

"Not far to go, we're nearly there," replied IF.

The two girls had carried Neptune and Nepgear all the way from the cave on their backs for over two hours, IF now wished that she managed to convince Wraith to assist them in getting to the city, it was tiring for them now.

"I think we'll have to rest here before continuing on," said IF. "If we keep going we'll be to tired to do anything."

Compa nodded and placed Nepgear on the ground next to her, Compa sighed with relieve as she laid down on the grass and let her exhaustion flow over her. IF did the same after she laid Neptune down next to Nepgear.

"Hey, Iffy, do you think Blue-Blue is one of those Ancients?" asked Compa.

"With what Histoire explained it sounds like a possibility at least, but I want to know whether he knew or not, and if he did know about this then that would mean he has been lying to us all."

Compa couldn't help noticing how IF sounded mildly angry at the thought of their friend lying to them about himself, the two of them knew that there were many things that they did not know about Brian but they were fairly sure that he was just a normal yet unlucky human, up until now that is.

"He can't be a bad person, Iffy, at least I don't think he is," said Compa. "Once we get back we'll get some answers, so don't worry about it."

"I'm more concerned about the status of Planeptune at the moment now, Histoire said that something happened and now I'm worrying about how bad the damage is."

Compa looked at her brown haired friend and smiled to cheer her up. "I'm sure everything is under control, and besides, if there is any damage we can help clean it all up."

"I suppose so, its just –," IF stopped talking once she looked up at the sky and saw something, something rather familiar. "Hey, Compa, look at the sky and tell me what you see."

Compa looked up at the sky with a puzzled look to see what IF was talking about, after a few seconds she squinted at an object that was falling from the skies at a rapid speed.

"Hey, Iffy, is that what you're talking about?" asked Compa as she pointed at it.

"Yeah that one," replied IF. "It's familiar ain't it? It's just like what we saw when Blue fell out of the sky that night."

The two girls looked at the falling object, both were unsure about what to do now. The object kept falling down until IF could see that the object took the shape of a human, at least that was how it looked to her.

"This feels too familiar, next thing you know it'll land right near us and then we'll find a person lying on their back with a confused look all over their face," commented IF.

Compa didn't say it but she was feeling a sense of nostalgia as the falling human-like object fell from the sky and crashed into a nearby patch of trees and bushes, sending a shock-wave that blew away piles of loose leaves and grass. IF and Compa looked at the area where the human-like object had landed before IF glanced at Compa.

"Compa, stay here and keep an eye on those two, I'll see what we're dealing with," said IF,

"Alright then, be careful," responded Compa nervously.

IF stood up and walked over to the crash site, she approached the area with care in case whatever or whoever fell from the sky was hostile, but when she came across the person who fell from the sky she too couldn't help but feel nostalgia. In a small crater laid a young man on his back, he wore an open orange hoodie jacket, blue denim shorts with a black belt and black sneakers with red lining. He had brown hair that flowed down the back and sides of his head, a big flick of hair covered his left eye however, his eyes were purple and from what IF could tell he was between 16 to 19 age wise, he also had palish skin.

He was unconscious when IF found him on his back, he didn't appear to have any signs of damage on his body and clothes and he was breathing normally. IF sighed, she wanted to know who this guy was and why he fell out of the sky, and she knew that she had to wait. With a little reluctance IF managed to pick up the stranger and carry him back to Compa, Neptune and Nepgear. Once she got closer to Compa the young nurse-in-training saw who was over her shoulder.

"Oh, who's this?" asked Compa.

"I found him in a small crater over where the falling object crashed, so I guess it's safe to presume that this guy was the falling object," replied IF as she laid the stranger down on the ground. "Check him to see if there's anything wrong."

Compa nodded and got to work, but before she could check his pulse his eyes sprang open, causing Compa to loose her composure and shriek. IF noticed the commotion and watched as the young man groaned while picking himself up from the ground, once he stood up he stood up straight and cracked his back, sighing in relieve as he slouched forward.

"Well, that was eventful," he grumbled.

"Um … who are you?" asked IF. From IF's protective he was a tad taller than her, possibly measuring up to 5 ft 8-9.

The young man looked at IF with an emotionless stare. "I'm not obliged to answer," he replied.

It wasn't an answer that either girl had expected from him, but then they didn't know what to expect with this newcomer at all. He didn't show any emotion when he spoke and they noticed that he was glaring at them whenever they looked at him, at least it looked as if he was glaring anyway.

"Would it help if we told you our names?" asked IF.

The young man shrugged. "I don't know, let's find out. Perhaps my behaviour will change, perhaps it won't."

"Anyway … my name is IF, and she's Compa," said IF as she pointed at Compa.

"Hi there," beamed Compa.

"Very well then, I guess I am now obliged to tell you my name then," groaned the young man. "My name is Angel, denizen of Earth and master of the MMO world."

"What a title, and a name to boot," remarked IF.

"What a lovely name," commented Compa with a smile.

"Wait … did you say Earth?" asked IF with a shocked look. "A friend of ours comes from Earth."

"Hmm?" Angel looked at IF with a raised eyebrow. "From Earth you say?

"What does this friend of yours look like, may I ask?" asked IF.

"Well, he's around 6 ft tall, had brown hair and eyes, he sometimes twitches and has a thing for Roman history," explained Angel.

"Hmm … brown hair and twitching problems … wait a minute, are you refering to Blue?" asked IF.

"Blue? Is that what he's calling himself?" asked Angel with a confused face. "Well anyway, where is he right now? I'm looking for him."

IF looked at Angel, her thoughts filled with questions and confusion. From what Angel said it sounded like Brian had been lying to them all along with his true name.

Angel noticed the look on IF's face and sighed. "Look, where is he? He's got a lot of explaining to do when I catch up with him."

"Why are you looking for him?" Compa asked Angel.

"For two reasons: one, I want to know why there was a wormhole in his room, and two I needed some advice … and money," replied Angel.

"Blue's in Planpetune, we're heading there but as you can see we have to get some rest," said Compa.

Angel then noticed the two unconscious Goddesses near him. "Is it because of those two?"

"Yeah, Nep-Nep and Ge-Ge are unconscious due to a problem that's going on back home, we were carrying them all the way but we got tired."

"So … where exactly am I?" asked Angel, he had an uncaring tone as he spoke.

"This is Gamindustri, this is a different dimension if you hadn't noticed," replied Compa.

As Compa spoke Angel couldn't help it but take glances at her chest without arousing suspicion from either of the girls, he even took a quick glance at IF's chest and sighed silently in disappointment.

 _So this IF is a flaty then, I'm not going to complain about it but I prefer the bustier types, like that Compa over there. But if I'm in a different dimension that would mean … that there's a chance I might get lucky with a girl! HELL YEAH!_

"Hey, are you even listening to us?" asked IF, she had noticed that his eyes were glancing back and forth between herself and Compa.

"Huh? Oh … yeah I'm listening," replied Angel quickly.

IF eyed him suspiciously. "Anyway, if you are able to do so, can you help us get Neptune and Nepgear back to Planeptune?"

"I suppose so, as long as you point the way … and if I get a reward," replied Angel.

"Urgh … fine then, but you better tell us about Blue once we get back, also you'll have to explain how you managed to get here as well."

"I suppose I could waste my time in giving you information if you need it."

Angel then walked up to Neptune and Nepgear and, to the surprise of IF and Compa, picked them both up and slung them over his shoulders with little effort.

"Now then, show me the way," demanded Angel.

"Um … alright then," replied IF who looked stunned.

IF and Compa, despite being partially exhausted, manage to run ahead of Angel as he carried the two Planeptunian Goddesses over his shoulders and ran behind the two girls, taking glances at their backsides whenever he got the chance. However, he did wonder what situation Brian had gotten himself into this time.

* * *

 **A/N: This is a shout out to angeldoesmc for the new OC, Angel, I made a few minor adjustments but it mainly stays true to the original design. Once again I hope you enjoyed the new chapter and leave a comment if you have suggestions, see ya next time!  
**


	20. A True Name Revealed

**Chapter 19: A True Name Revealed**

"Whoa, what happened to this place?" asked Angel.

Angel, IF, Compa and the unconscious purple sisters had arrived in Planeptune without being seen by the citizens, less they get overly concerned about what happened to their Goddesses. The group had arrived at the Basilicom and the saw the amount of destruction that was wrought upon the area, a large section of the lower level of the Basilicom had been destroyed, large fissures now dominated the ground and nearby buildings had suffered from the fight.

"What, or who, caused this?" asked IF, her voice dripped in shock.

No one had seen this amount of destruction since Rei Rights had transformed into the CPU of Chaos and almost destroyed Planeptune, but the mad CPU had a large cannon that destroyed parts of the city and from what the group could get out of the soldiers and guards was that it was one person who stuck his sword into the ground and caused the damage, not to mention the explosion from within the Basiliom which some had blamed the person for.

"Did you get a good look on what happened?" IF asked one of the soldiers.

"Not really, once we got here the damage had already been done. But some of us did see two guys running down one of the streets, but we were told to secure the area," replied the soldier.

"What else was here? Anything alive?"

"Well, there was one guy that was lying down over here, no one took a liking to him as he looked … well, he looked like a freak. Those eyes of his and the strange energy around his body didn't put him on our good books, especially since several eyewitnesses said that he was the one who destroyed this area with one single attack."

"What did he look like?"

"He had a brown trench coat, black shirt, dark bluish pants and was carrying throwing knives and some kind of sword."

IF's eyes went wide when she heard the description. "Where is he? We need to see him!"

"He's in the Basilicom, Miss Histoire has ordered for no one to enter the building."

"But we have the Goddesses with us and they need medical attention," whimpered Compa with an adorable face, according to Angel anyway.

"What? Those are the Goddesses? What happened to them?"

"They're tired. Look, we're friends of Histoire so can we please go in?" asked IF who was getting impatient.

"Urgh, fine then," the soldier sighed. "You lot can go on in."

The group raced into the Basilicom and noticed small but noticeable piles of blood amid the ruins of the first floor, they didn't stop to investigate it as they ran towards the lift. Inside the lift IF and Compa fell to the ground in exhaustion, leaving Angel the only person to be left standing. He looked fine as he still carried the Goddesses over his shoulders with little to no effort at all. He glanced down and took a look at the girls near him and the ones over his shoulders, showing off one of his rare genuine smiles.

 _If the girls around here are cute, which from what I saw they are, then I wonder how Brian has coped with them?_

He looked outside the lift, as it was see through, and looked over the city; it looked like a futuristic version of the cities back on Earth, just a bit more cleaner. The lift stopped and, with a light nudge from his shoe to IF and Compa, the three of them walked down the hallway to look for Histoire, wherever she may be.

"So who is this Histoire?" asked Angel. "She must be someone important."

"She's the Oracle of Planeptune and is one who does all of the work around here," replied IF. "Plus she's a fairy on a tome. Thought I might warn you in case you got confused."

"Actually, I'm not that surprised at all," said Angel. "I'm starting to think I landed on some sort of MMO world, it looks like it anyway."

"A gamer huh? You might fit in nicely around here, so long as you don't keep perving on us," said IF with a glare at Angel.

"Noticed it then?"

"Yes, I've noticed it, pervert."

"Huh? Pervert? What do you mean, Iffy?" asked Compa, she wasn't quite sure what was going on.

"So then, the flatter they are the smarter they are while the bustier they are the dumber they are. I can cope with that," mumbled Angel.

"What did you say?!" growled IF.

"Nothing for you to know," retorted Angel with a backhand wave.

As IF prepared to have a full on argument with Angel the group could hear a raised voice coming from the main room, it sounded like an argument had already taken place. With a shrug Angel walked over to the partially opened door, followed by a still not-so-happy IF and Compa. The group listened and peered in to see what was going on, there they found Brian being 'lectured' by a rage filled Histoire, Brian wasn't any better as Angel recognised the look of annoyance across his face. Brian had his hat off and has holding it, meanwhile he was missing throwing knives but his sword was still attached to his left waist, his eyes had also gone back to normal.

"Do you have any idea what you have done?!" yelled Histoire.

"Of course I did, but how was I supposed to know that would happen?" retorted Brian.

"At least you could have shown some restraint when launching that attack, do you even realise the amount of damage you have caused?!"

"Of course I do, you think I'm stupid?! Do you not even consider the fact that what you are saying is plainly obvious to me?!"

Histoire back off away from Brian when he shouted at her, she quickly realised that one should never piss him off, especially since his tempers had gotten worse ever since he had absorbed the Share Energy. She also couldn't help notice that his eyes were beginning to flare blue again.

 _Perhaps his emotions have an effect over his control of the Share Energy, this is unfortunate as if he got too angry then he could possibly loose control over his power._

Back at the door the group looked at Brian in shock and amazement. "That's pretty cool," Angel commented.

"It's kinda … scary," said Compa in a freaked tone.

"It has to be Share Energy, Histoire said he absorbed it during the fight," explained IF.

"Huh? Who's there?" asked Histoire as she and Brian heard the voices from the door.

When the two of them looked over at the door there they saw IF, Compa, Angel and the two purple sisters slung over Angel's shoulders. When Brian saw Angel he grinned and his eyes became normal once again.

"Angel, the hell are you doing here? How are you here" asked Brian without removing the grin.

"Same way you did; came through a wormhole that happened to be in your room," replied Angel while remaining emotionless.

"Is he an acquaintance of yours, Blue?" asked Histoire.

"He is what you would call a friend, Histoire," replied Brian. "This is Angel, master of the MMO world."

Angel walked over to the nearby couch and laid Neptune and Nepgear on it before turning around and giving a little bow towards Histoire. "And before you ask, yes, I'm from the same world as that tall fellow beside you," said Angel.

"I'll have to talk to both of you young gentlemen latter, but for now we have to get Neptune and Nepgear some medical treatment," said Histoire.

"So, is there anything we can do?" IF asked Histoire.

"The only way to do that would be to replenish their lost Shares, I have some ideas but it won't help in the short term," replied Histoire.

* * *

Histoire and IF were standing in the Nep sisters' room where both Neptune and Nepgear were in bed after being looked at by the Basilicom medical staff, there wasn't anything wrong with them besides the fact that they had lost nearly all their Share Energy which had left them in a fever trance. Histoire then concluded that Planeptune would have to raise its Shares again, but with both the Goddesses out there wasn't many ideas on how to regain the Shares, except one that Brian thought of; he could find a way to return the absorbed Share Energy back into the Sharicite. It sounded like a good plan except for one tiny problem; he didn't know how to do it.

"Perhaps if we could find Wraith then we might be able to go along with Blue's idea," sighed Histoire.

"But he's up in Lowee as far as I could tell, plus if we informed Blanc to go look for him I doubt she would oblige, she doesn't like him," explained IF.

"That is true. I guess we'll have to inform Blue that he has to find a way to do it himself. By the way, where is he at the moment? I have to speak with him and Angel."

"Last I saw them Blue was in the main room with Angel playing on Neptune's game console, but I have to talk to him as well, if you don't mind letting me go first."

Histoire nodded. "Very well then. But I can tell that you might be just a little bit angry, don't punch him out alright?"

IF nodded and walked towards the door, leaving Histoire behind with sorrow upon her face. As IF began to leave she turned around and looked at Histoire.

"By the way, when I spoke to Wraith after Neptune and Nepgear went out cold he said that he helped people because of the sins he had committed in his past, and that he once had friends but his sins affected the relationship between them, although he did say that they forgave him for whatever he did he said he could sense that they still mistrusted him. I'm not sure why I'm telling you this but I think you can get to the bottom of Wraith's past."

"Hmm, interesting information, I'll be sure to bring it up the next time I see him. Anyway, good luck with those young men."

When IF entered the main room she saw that Brian and Angel hadn't left their positions by the console and from the look on their faces they seemed to be enjoying themselves, well, it was hard to tell with Angel, he was emotionless nearly all of the time anyway. Compa was sitting on a chair behind the couch, watching the young men play their game.

"Hey, Blue, we need to talk," said IF. "You too, Angel."

"Just after we defeat the final boss," responded Blue.

"Now. Histoire will want to speak to the two of you soon as well, so I want to speak with the both of you right now."

"Fine then, but it's on your head if this is a waste of my time," complained Angel as he paused the game.

The two of them looked up at IF as she stared at both of them, her arms were crossed and any hints of emotion on her face were gone.

"Alright then, to start –," IF began before she was interrupted by Angel.

"You do remember that I'm still waiting for my reward for carrying those two back here, right?" asked Angel. "I want to know what it is."

"Your reward is not being clobbered by an angry me," snarled IF who had become annoyed at Angel.

"I protest against the act of violence against me, I didn't do anything to aggravate you."

"Grrr, shut up pervert."

Brian looked at Angel with a smirk. "So, big over flat still?"

"Yep, although I can be lenient, I don't mind flat sometimes" replied Angel. "What say you though?"

"Well … I was unfortunate to be asked that very same question by two other Goddesses; Vert and Blanc. Vert is the Goddess of Leanbox and happens to have the largest set of breasts I've seen while Blanc is the Goddess of Lowee and has the smallest breasts I've seen," explained Brian. "And before you start fantasising I haven't seen them without clothes. And as for the answer, well … I've yet to give them one."

"Ahem! I'm still here you know," complained IF.

"Oh, right. Anyway, what did you want?" asked Angel who didn't seem to care about the reward now.

"I'm here to ask questions. To start it off, explain how you got here Angel? I'm sure Histoire would want to ask you later about it but I want to know first, just explain in full detail, if you can that is."

"Well, it was late at night and I was playing an MMO, but I was stuck and needed some advice. So I walked down the street to this fellow's house and got in, then –" Angel began to explain before Brian interrupted him.

"Wait a moment, you broke into my house?!" yelled Brian.

"All I needed was some advice … and some money as well. Your phone wasn't working plus it was past midnight so I couldn't knock on the door," explained Angel. "Anyway, when I managed to get in I find that he was missing and a wormhole was occupying itself near his bedroom door, so I jumped in."

"That was certainly, er, interesting," said IF. "Now my second question, and one that I'm more concerned about; Blue, what is your real name?"

IF, and even Compa, were leaning towards Brian, hoping he would answer honestly. He sighed and looked at the two girls. "Did Angel say something he shouldn't have?"

"Hey don't blame me, all I said, and I quote, was 'Blue? Is that what he's calling himself?'" whined Angel.

Brian sighed at his friend and looked back at IF and Compa. "Listen, Blue isn't my real name as you may have guessed, my real name is Brian. But before you go whining about why I lied to you when we first met I had a reason to do so."

"Go on then, what was it?" asked Compa who was a little upset that he had lied to them.

"I'm not good when it comes to trusting people, so when we first met I didn't know if I could trust you at first, that's why I became known to everyone as Blue," replied Brian. "I am sorry for lying to you, but just put yourself in my situation; would you have done the same thing?"

IF couldn't argue with Brian's explanation, except she had just one question. "Do you trust us now?"

"Yes, I do trust both you and Compa, and I suppose the others as well," replied Brian.

"Yay! He trusts us!" Compa cried out as she tightly hugged Brian.

"Oi! I didn't give you permission to hug me!" yelled Brian.

Compa didn't listen as she continued to hug Brian as he attempted to flail around, causing IF to chuckle at the sight in front of her. She glanced at Angel to see him looking at a few weapons that happened to be laying up against the wall. They were there because, as Neptune would put it, 'plot convenience', but truth be told they were actually some weapons that the deceased guards had used. Angel was staring at a specific weapon that stood out from the others; a two-handed steel longsword that was nearly taller than himself, it had a diamond shape pommel and a straight cross-guard.

"Hmm … I wonder if anyone would miss it," mumbled Angel.

"It doesn't have an owner, if you're interested in taking it," said IF as she walked over to him. "It belongs with the Basilicom armoury but I'm sure they wouldn't mind you taking it.

Angel stood up and walked over to the two-handed sword, he picked it up and gazed at it, from what IF could see he liked it. He then started to swing it around him with one hand before continuing with two hands while ignoring the shouting complaints from IF. Brian had managed to get out of the death grip hug from Compa and compensates it by patting her on the head instead, Compa's response was to smile happily.

Histoire floated by the doorway as she looked at the chaotic group, their current actions amused her and managed to make her smile slightly. She had listened to their conversation and was interested in knowing Brian's true name and Angel's explanation about how he managed to get to this world, nonetheless she still needed to talk to Brian about a few things that concerned his origins and his idea of giving up the absorbed Share Energy and getting it back into the Sharicite. She floated over to them and cleared her throat before talking.

"I'm sorry to intrude but I have to speak to Bl-, er, Brian now," said Histoire. "Don't worry Angel, I don't need to talk to you since I overheard the previous conversation.

The group stopped their actions and paid attention to Histoire, who was looking at Brian. "Alright then, what was it that you want to talk to me about?" he asked.

"Mainly two things; one, your origins, I'm sure you have figured this out by now but you are an Ancient, that much is clear as you absorbed the Share Energy during the fight, but I want to know if you actually knew about your true origins," explained Histoire.

Before Brian could think of a reply Angel spoke up. "Excuse me but what is an Ancient? Can someone possibly explain this all to me?"

"I'll explain it as best I can," replied Histoire. She then spent the next five minutes explaining to Angel about the history of the Ancients and even told him about the Prophecy of the Shadow Walker. After her explanation Angel put a hand to his chin and processed what he heard through his mind.

"So then, that would mean that Brian here is the last of the Ancients then," Angel summarised. "This is like an RPG, kinda reminds me of Skyrim actually. How do you feel about being a hero foretold by legend, Shadow Walker?"

"It didn't say that I was a hero," retorted Brian. "Besides, let Histoire continue talking."

"Thanks. Anyway, were you even aware about your true origins, Brian?"

"No, I thought I was just a normal Earthling," replied Brian.

"Very well then, I believe you. Secondly, have you come up with a way to restore the Sharicite yet?"

"No, but I'll find a way to do it."

"Good, that was all I needed to know. Oh there was one last thing, just a bit of information for you, but I noticed that whenever you're emotional you're power is activated. So far it's only with your anger and I don't know if you can only activate it with just emotions, but I doubt only your emotions control it."

"Thanks for telling me, Histoire, I wasn't quite sure of it myself. Thanks again."

Histoire smiled before leaving the room to return to her office, she needed to let the Oracles and other CPUs know of the situation. Meanwhile, as IF shouted at Angel to stop swinging his new weapon around again while Compa went to the kitchen to make some snacks, Brian looked at the palms of his hands as a thought occurred to him.

 _Hmmm … it's a bit of a long shot but I think I can pull it off, I just need to focus on my willpower, that will have to do for me. Still, I can't get over this feeling of dread, what happens if I fail at restoring at least some of the Sharicite? And what of the Dark Captains? When will they strike next? By the Gods I hope something good actually happens._


	21. Restoration and Dimensional Friends

**Chapter 20: Restoration and Dimensional Friends**

Brian stood in the ruined Sharicite Room, much of what had once been a part of the room had been either destroyed completely or had been blown across the Basilicom. As he glanced around the room the only thing that remained intact was the Sharicite itself, it was dim and appeared to look dead but a small light shimmered from its core, signalling that it was still operational.

As he looked at it Brian wasn't quite sure how it was going to work out, he feared that if he failed then who knows what would happen to Neptune and Nepgear, not to mention Planeptune. On the other hand what happened if he succeeded but something happened to him instead?

"Well, I know of one thing; I must help the Nep sisters and restore the Sharicite, even if I remain unappreciated by the citizens of this city," said Brian.

He placed his right hand on the Sharicite and waited, what he was waiting for was unclear even to himself, he didn't know what he was expecting to happen. He then remembered what he said to himself a while ago; 'I just need to focus on my willpower'. With that in mind he began to focus, well, he didn't really know how to focus but he was willing to give it a try.

"Come on! How hard is it to focus my energy into the damn Sharicite?!" he yelled.

Since he was alone in the ruined room he didn't expect an answer, and an answer he didn't receive. After attempting to focus his energy for over five minutes he started to get agitated.

"This … is … ridiculous!" he shouted to himself. "Just focus … focus … FOCUS! There's more than one way to activate my power without anger, that's for sure."

The Share Energy then began to glow around him once more, but more fiercely this time, he stood up and placed his right hand over the Sharicite once more, he looked into it and saw his reflection; the Share Energy was bright across his body and his eyes were flaring blue.

"Yes! It's working! Now then, time to restore the Sharicite."

Suddenly Share Energy started to flow from his hand and into the Sharicite, causing it to shine brightly, the plan was working so far. He kept focusing the energy into the palm of his hand and moved it into the Sharicite as it continued to glow, but Brian then felt tired due to the strain of focusing the Share Energy into the Sharicite.

"Must … keep … going," he grunted.

The entire room began to shine as a result of the Sharicite regaining the Share Energy, yet Brian continued to pour more of the energy back into the Sharicite, he felt dizzy and even more tired than before.

"I'm … getting … too tired," he mumbled as he lost focus and fell to his knees, he could still feel Share Energy flowing through his body but for the moment he was content; he had returned some of it back to where it should be.

"Finally, I've done … something … good," panted Brian. "Dammit … I might loose consciousness, that just … keeps … happening to me, huh?"

He crawled his way to the exit of the Sharicite Room and proceeded to grab a large piece of metal, which was part of the debris, and used it as a walking stick to get him to the elevator. But as he got there the elevator opened and he saw someone as his vision darkened.

"Hey, you alright there?"

* * *

"… and so that's what happened," Histoire explained to everyone on the video chat.

"We should have stayed there," said Vert. "It would have been better for us to have been there instead of leaving."

Chika gave a worried look towards Vert before looking at Histoire. "How's the boy and his friend coping now?"

"Brian is figuring out a way to restore the Sharicite by using his power, and as for Angel, well, he seems to have settled in comfortably," replied Histoire.

"Still, I find it disappointing that Blue, or whatever he calls himself now, lied to us about his true name," pouted Noire.

"Noire is right, I find it saddening even if he did have a valid excuse," commented Uni.

"What's done is done, and besides, he did have a reason for it," said Blanc. "From what you've said, Histoire, it would seem that Brian is determined to restore the Planeptune Sharicite, so I can still trust him."

"I hope Neptune will be alright," mumbled Noire to herself, which everyone heard anyway.

"Hmm? Did you say something, Noire?" asked Vert with a cheeky grin on her face.

"What? NO! I didn't say anything about hoping Neptune will be alright or anything so don't get the wrong idea!," yelled Noire.

"You do realise you just admitted that you were worried about her don't you, Lady Noire?" smirked Kei, causing Uni to chuckle.

Noire glared at the two of them and shook her head furiously. "No no no no no no! You've got it all wrong!"

"Whatever you say, tsundere queen," said Blanc with a grin.

As Noire continued to protest against everyone Blanc was tapped on the shoulder by Mina, who looked rather ecstatic.

"Yes Mina? Was there something that you needed?" asked Blanc.

"You need to take a look at this report," replied Mina.

Blanc took hold of the report and gazed at it, suddenly she became astonished and quickly turned back to the video chat.

"Histoire, the Shares of Planeptune are rising," reported Blanc.

"What?" everyone exclaimed.

"Then that would mean that Brian actually did it, he found a way to restore the Sharicite," said Histoire while smiling.

"But what would happen to Brian?" asked Kei.

"I … I don't know," replied Histoire honestly. "I'm not sure what will happen to him. I'll get someone to check on him. Angel! I need your assistance."

Everyone on the video chat watched as a brown haired boy with purple eyes walk beside Histoire and glanced at her and the video chat, he appeared to have little interest with what was going on at all.

"Yeah? You need something?" asked Angel disinterestedly.

"Yes, can you go to the Sharicite Room and see if you can find Brian please? He's managed to restore some of the Share Energy back into the Sharicite."

Angel shrugged. "I suppose I can do that, though you may want to tell IF and Compa to look out for Neptune and Nepgear as well."

Histoire nodded to Angel before he left the room, he didn't look concerned and he didn't appeared to be worried at all. When he closed the door as he left the office Histoire sighed.

"He's going to be a problem," sighed Histoire.

"So that's Angel? He looks bored as hell, and sounds utterly rude," commented Noire.

"Don't judge a book by its cover," retorted Vert. "There may be more to him than meets the eye, just like Brian."

Histoire nodded. "Anyway, I have to go and inform the others about the news, farewell for now."

The others said their good byes and the video chat was turned off. Histoire floated her way down the corridor on her tome towards the main room, when she got near the bedroom she heard the voices of IF and Compa along with what sounded like Neptune and Nepgear, even though they sounded groggy it still sounded like them at least.

"What the nep? What's going on? Weren't we in a cave having a seizure of sorts?" asked Neptune.

"Yeah good to see you too, Neptune," said IF sarcastically.

"Oh, right. Good to see you, Iffy," greeted Neptune as she rubbed her eyes.

Compa was crying as she jumped at Neptune and hugged her. "Nep-Nep! Welcome back!"

Nepgear tried getting out of bed but fell back onto the covers of the bed with a grunt. "What … what the goodness happened to us?"

"You both had a loss of Share Energy," explained IF.

"Wah? Did Nowa release a new game to take away my popularity?" asked Neptune half jokingly.

"Actually, it was those Dark Captains that tried to steal your Share Energy, they almost succeeded until Brian got in their way and absorbed it, plus he caused a lot of damage and no one in the city thinks highly of him," replied IF.

"Wait … Brian? Who's that? And why did he cause so much destruction in the city?" asked Nepgear.

"Well, you see … Brian is Blue's true name," responded Compa. "And as for destroying a large area outside the Basilicom, he kinda got carried away with a new combat move."

"Eh? Blue is this Brian guy? Where is he?" asked Neptune.

"I believe he may be in the Sharicite Room," replied IF. "It looks as if he managed to get it working again now that the both of you are up."

"Goodness … is someone going to check up on him?" asked Nepgear.

"I heard Histoire call for Angel to go fetch him, so there shouldn't be any problems," replied IF.

"Angel? Who's that?" Neptune and Nepgear asked.

"A friend of Bri-Bri who followed him into the portal and ended up here earlier today," replied Compa. She had taken the liberty of calling Brian 'Bri-Bri', much to his own self pity.

"Sounds like an interesting guy," said Neptune. "When can we meet him?"

As soon as he get Brian up here," answered IF. "But for now, just rest."

* * *

"Hey, you alright there?"

Brian's vision was darkening but he could recognise the person standing in front of him; it was Angel.

"Oh, hey there. Do you mind if I get in the elevator?" asked Brian.

"Be my guest, I was sent to fetch you by Histoire anyway, from what I saw all those other Goddesses you told me about were concerned about the situation here, and then they asked about you."

Well I'm fine, just rather dizzy, loosing my sight and feeling like I could loose consciousness at any moment."

The two of them got into the elevator and ascended to the higher levels where they were being expected by the girls. Brian looked through the see-through glass of the elevator and saw the setting sun in the horizon to the west, many people would call it beautiful but Brian and Angel wouldn't call it that, to them it was just another normal event that occurred at some point during the day, for the day they had today was rather eventful.

"So, how was your first day in Gamindustri?" Brian asked Angel.

"Hmm … I'd call it bizarre as no other explanation comes to mind," replied Angel.

"That was kinda the same response I thought of for my first day. Still, it's better than being back at home and preparing to go to school."

"Damn right about that."

When they reached the floor they wanted they got off the elevator and walked down the hallway, Angel had to support Brian has they walked when Brian dropped his metal rod before getting on the elevator. They were approaching the main room when suddenly a flash of light purple and white ran towards Brian and smashed into him, sending him down onto the ground on his back. When Brian looked at who or what smashed into him he found Neptune hugging him tightly.

"Uh … why are you hugging me Neptune?" asked Brian. "Oh, and nice to see you."

Neptune looked up at Brian with a small smile. "Good to see you too, Brian," said Neptune, almost holding herself back from yelling.

"Ah, so they told you my real name then? Don't worry about it, I was going to tell you and Nepgear my real name at some point durign the today or even tomorrow you know."

"Hey, don't worry about it, but anyway … thanks for everything you've done for us."

Brian smiled and patted Neptune on the head. "It was nothing, but I doubt your citizens are going to like me since I kinda destroyed a part of the neighbourhood."

"That can be fixed up easily and I hope quickly," said Histoire as she entered the hallway along with Nepgear, IF and Compa.

"I'm glad my plan worked, although not all of the Share Energy was returned I'm afraid," explained Brian.

"Well, what's done is done," said Histoire. "But now with some Share Energy back I'm sure Neptune can be convinced of the need to do some work."

"What?! Nepu! I ain't gonna doing work," complained Neptune as Nepgear, IF and Compa chuckled.

"It isn't a choice, Neptune," snarled Histoire.

"Brian, help me!" pleaded Neptune.

Brian could only chuckle as Neptune begged for him to help her while Histoire continued to lecture her about the need to do work now that she has a reason to raise her Shares, it was starting to become a normal evening once more in his mind.

* * *

"And this is where Brian sleeps."

"Ooooooo, the bed looks soooo comfy."

Brian had been silently awakened by two voices in his room, well actually it was one of the guest rooms but he claimed it as his own for the moment, but he wasn't pleased that he had been awakened by two people barging into his room just to take a look. He could recognise the first voice he heard as Neptune but the second voice, which sounded as if it came from a sleepy girl, he couldn't recognise at all.

 _Must be someone new then, I've already met all of Neptune's friends … at least I think so anyway. Damn they're getting loud, can't they just shut up?!_

"Hey, Brian, wake up already," demanded Neptune. "If you don't wake up I'm gonna do something to ya."

Brian continued to stay still as he tried to sleep in and ignored Neptune's attempts to get him out of the bed, finally she stopped talking and Brian silently sighed with relief. He thought that they had finally left him alone, but when he heard someone jump into the air and land on his body did he realise he was utterly wrong.

"GAH!" yelled Brian.

"Finally, you're up," beamed Neptune as she continued to stand on Brian.

"Of course I'm awake! Who wouldn't be awake when a small Goddess jumps onto you?!"

Neptune giggled and sat on his chest. "Whatever, Bri-Bri."

Brian gritted his teeth when Neptune called him by his nickname. "I've told you to never call me that again."

"But I like it, so therefore I can call you it whenever I want to."

Brian sighed in disbelief, he knew that it was nearly impossible to argue with Neptune, unless you happened to be Histoire, so Brian would usually give up arguing with the pudding obsessed Goddess. His attention was then caught by viewing the sleepy girl who had accompanied Neptune to rid him of his beauty sleep.

She had fair-pale skin and pink eyes while her hair reached waist length with messy bangs framing her face while her hair was in a big braid held with a pastel pink frilled ribbon. Her outfit consisted of a loose powder blue top with a frilled neck segment with a bright pink-purple bow and a long white section in the centre held with a white multi-piece belt with a purple piece, it also had pink cloth sections with ruffled white lining and single white stripes on the sleeves. She wore a dress that had small button-clasped sleeves with peach and white lines, the skirt is of an uneven length while she wore pink bear fuzzy slipper. She then walked up to the bed and stood close to Brian.

"Hellooo there, how are you?" asked the sleepy girl.

"I've been better, yet I've also been worse I suppose," replied Brian. "Anyway, who are you?"

"My name is Plutia, Goddess of Planeptune," came the response.

"Huh? I thought Neptune was the Goddess of Planeptune."

"Of course I am, but Plutie is from a different dimension where there's another Gamindustri," explained Neptune who was still sitting on Brian's chest, much to his discomfort.

"Well, I'm not surprised actually," remarked Brian. "It would make sense that there would be different versions of Gamindustri somewhere. So then, Plutia, do you come here often?"

Plutia nodded. "Yep, but I don't stay here long though, apparently time runs faster in my dimension when I'm here and time moves slower here if I'm in my dimension."

"Hmmm … so then, if a day passed here then it could have been over a month or two back in your home?" Brian asked Plutia.

"It's something like that," replied Plutia.

"Nepu both, too much weird info!" groaned Neptune.

"It's called science, a very important piece of life for anyone," explained Brian.

"Whatever. Oh, Nep Jr. has made some breakie if you want any."

"Alright then, just get off me and I'll be on my way."

Neptune beamed at Brian as she got off his chest and followed Plutia to the kitchen, leaving Brian to close the door to his guest room after he had gotten out of bed. He sighed and looked at a mirror that hung near the bed, he looked at his reflection and touched the mirror where his eyes were reflected, they flared blue for a second before returning to normal.

 _Now what? Even with the Dark Captains still roaming around I know that I can't stay in Planeptune for much longer, the locals don't seem pleased to even look at me, even the guards aren't very friendly in their attitude towards me even though I'm a friend of the Goddesses. Urgh, I've gotta speak to Histoire about it._

Once he got changed from his black pyjamas and into his usual attire he opened his door and walked to the main room, but once he approached it he saw something, or rather someone, running towards him. It looked like a large bee with a human face from the distance, but as it got closer it looked like a little blonde girl in a black and yellow jumper that had a tail, she also wore a pair of shorts and sneakers. She also looked to be wearing paw gloves. Her eyes were blue and she had two oversized hair bobbles on top of her head. The girl jumped and smashed into him.

"Wha-URGH!" grunted Brian as he fell to the ground from the extreme force of the hug.

"Yay! Now I can get Nep's pudding!" yelled the small girl excitedly as she jumped off Brian and ran around in circles.

"Guh … Nep's pudding huh … Neptune!" grumbled Brian as he struggled to get up.

"Oh goodness, do you need help, Brian?" asked Nepgear as she ran up to him from the kitchen.

"Yeah, I might need a helping hand for once."

Nepgear was quick to get Brian onto his feet, when he managed to stand up he looked at the little girl running in circles around them. He was stunned that someone that young could muster the strength to almost knock him out just from a hug, and he had a feeling about who may have put her up to it.

"Tell me, Nepgear, where is Neptune?" Brian asked in a too-calm-to-be-sane voice.

"Um … she's in the kitchen looking for pudding last I saw her," replied Nepgear, unsure what was going to happen to her older sister.

"Ta very muchly," thanked Brian as he left the bewildered Nepgear and the excited kid behind.

As he entered the main room he looked for the kitchen and saw Neptune scavenging through the fridge, obviously the Basilicom had run out of puddings and Neptune was having a bad time believing it, or there was a pudding or two left at the back of the fridge and she was having a hard time trying to reach it. It looked as if it was serious either way as most of Neptune's body was in the fridge, leaving her long legs exposed. Brian walked up to her and cleared his throat loudly.

"Hello there, Neptune," he greeted in the same too-calm-to-be-sane voice.

Neptune stiffened when she heard Brian's voice and quickly got out of the fridge to look at him, she had a slightly worried look on her face.

"H-h-hello there, Brian, how are you?"

"I've been worse, but tell me; did you happen to have convinced that little air head of a girl to smash into me? I heard she was going to get one of your puddings once she got off me."

Neptune gulped nervously, she couldn't help but notice that Brian's eyes were flaring blue again. "Err … I might have done something like that … but it was to get you acquainted with Peashy that's all!"

"Peashy? Who's Peashy?"

"The girl who smashed into you, of course."

"Fine, I'll believe you, this time. Next time don't tell Peashy to smash into people like that again, alright?"

Neptune sighed with relief when Brian started to calm down and his eye returned to normal. As Neptune resumed her mission to scavenge for pudding in the fridge Brian walked over to the couch where Angel and Plutia were, they seemed to be getting on alright even with Angel's personal 'tastes', but as Brian got close to them he felt a shiver go down his spine. Obviously something wasn't right with their personalities, but Brian decided not to delve into it and instead decided to leave them be, so he then walked up to Nepgear and Peashy who had re-entered the room.

"Hey there," greeted Brian.

"Oh, hello there, Brian," responded Nepgear. "Are you alright now?"

"Yeah, just shook Neptune up a bit but we're fine. By the way, I heard from your older sister that there was some breakfast around here somewhere."

"There's a plate of food for you on the table."

"Thanks Nepgear, well, I'm off to eat now."

As Brian sat down at the table and ate his plate of food, which consisted of fried eggs and bacon on toast, Angel and Plutia were still talking about Gods know what from what Brian could hear. Brian decided to ignore them as he continued to eat, so he missed what they were talking about.

"So what is it like back in your dimension?" Angel asked Pultia.

"It's similar to here, except with a few changes," replied Plutia. "There are other Goddesses there as well."

"Quite interesting."

So far it had only been small talk but they were getting along pretty well, in fact Angel was beginning to enjoy Plutia's company as he found her amusing, even if he didn't show it. As for Plutia, she found Angel to be an interesting guy and was doing her best to befriend him.

As Brian ate his food he was getting interrupted constantly by Peashy who wanted some of his food and, after many attempts to shoo her away, he finally gave up his bacon to her, he sighed and shook his head as he watched Peashy sit down happily on the chair next to him while eating his bacon.

 _Well, at least she thinks highly of me now that I've relented and given her food. By the Gods are all kids like this? If so I can't imagine what Blanc would be like when it comes to Rom and Ram._

For the next few hours the usual chaos ensued; Brian attempted to read a book in peace but the attempt was a failure as Neptune and Peashy kept interrupting him, Angel too the opportunity to swing his two-handed sword around the place, Nepgear and Plutia would talk at times and would include Neptune if she wasn't annoying Brian while Histoire, who entered the room at some point, merely sighed.

After trying to read in peace for three hours Brian was getting fed up, but before he could voice his problems something got everyone's attention; the sounds of microphones from all across the city were being turned on and the same voice, or voices, was speaking through it.

"… well screw you too. Oi! Shut up! Can't you see I'm doing something here?!" shouted two voices at different times. The first voice disappeared with disgruntled grumbles, leaving the second voice to himself,

"Urgh. Anyway, greetings residents of Planeptune City, there is no need to panic, this is just a message for a certain someone out there in your beloved city."

"That voice, I've heard it before," mumbled Brian. "It's one of the Dark Captains, the one that nearly killed me."

"This message is for the one who calls himself the Shadow Walker. Shadow Walker, if you are somewhere in the city then come and find us, we need to … solve our issues. Come and find us along the southern outskirts outside of the city if you want to know more."

The crackling noise of the microphones died and all eyes in the room turned and looked at Brian, who was starting at a wall in front of him. He sighed, stood up and quickly walked to his room where he strapped on his set of throwing knives, his sword and his hat. As he left his room and headed down the hallway to the elevator he was stopped by someone grabbing onto his right shoulder, Brian turned around and saw Nepgear with a dreaded look on her face.

"Don't go, they'll kill you if you go," pleaded Nepgear.

"I want to know why they went through all that trouble just to lure me outside the city, plus I want to beat some of them up," responded Brian.

"Then let us go with you," said Neptune. "We gotta make sure you remain safe."

"I'm afraid I have to agree with the air head here," groaned Angel. "I know that you prefer working alone in these type of situations but in case if we ever get back to our dimension I need you to give me some more gaming advice and, not to mention, some money so I can get extra delux items for my characters."

"Fine, but you guys can only participate when necessary," sighed Brian in defeat.

"Can I come along too?" asked Plutia.

"Yeah sure, why not?" moaned Brian. He didn't want anyone to go with him but at least he felt safer in numbers.

As the group left the Basilicom to head for the south Histoire and Peashy were left behind, this left Histoire with some time to call IF and Compa and let them know of the situation.

 _Good luck everyone, may you all return safely._


	22. The Call to Battle

**Chapter 21: The Call to Battle**

"Are you sure that this plan of yours will work?" Kharzark asked Agandur's Right Hand.

"He will come, I know he will," replied Agandur's Right Hand.

"What of those pesky people who hang around him?" asked Lothar.

"Let them come, we will be prepared for them," responded Agandur's Right Hand.

Kharzark and Lothar smirked, they were ready for a rematch with the Shadow Walker, they had a good reason to hate him. Once Kharzark and Lothat returned to the farmhouse they had to face the wrath of the Right Hand, he wasn't pleased that they had failed to return with the Share Energy, but once they told him about the absorption of the Share Energy by Brian the Shadow Walker the Right Hand became interested, it looked as if he had an idea.

As Kharzark and Lothar left the farmhouse they saw several Dark Followers, who were made up of adventurers and armoured citizens who followed the Dark Captains, manoeuvring around the place in different groups. There were around twelve altogether and more were being recruited from travelling adventurers and merchants.

"What a rabble," grumbled Lothar. "They wouldn't be able to take on the Shadow Walker or those damn Goddesses any time soon."

"No, they won't be able too, but they still have their uses," remarked Kharzark.

The two of them may have hated each other but they agreed with a few things, and the fact that the Dark Followers were a bunch of useless gits was just one of them. At any rate, they were unprepared for a fight against the Shadow Walker and the CPUs.

"So what's going to happen?" asked Lothar. "Do we have to go out and fight the enemy? If so we should have waited for Severia to return from that cold wasteland to the north."

"I doubt that Severia would have returned quickly enough to fight alongside us, besides, if I am correct then I think that the Right Hand doesn't expect to win this fight at all," replied Kharzark.

"Eh? What do you mean 'doesn't expect to win'?! If he knows that we won't win then why did he challenge the Shadow Walker?!"

"It's only a suspicion, but I think he may have challenged the Shadow Walker to a full on fight to see his power with his own eyes, perhaps he has something planned for the boy and his new power."

"You're just about right," commented Agandur's Right Hand who had walked up to the two Captains.

"We've already told you about him so why bother fighting someone that we couldn't beat?" asked Lothar.

"Because he can use Share Energy, and Share Energy is what we need," replied the Right Hand. "Now then, we're not going to use the Dark Followers in the coming battle, we'll keep them here until he get back."

"Then what?" asked Lothar.

"Then we will go ahead with whatever comes next," replied Agandur's Right Hand.

* * *

Brian and the group stood outside the southern outskirts of the city, the buildings were far behind them in the distance to the north and the mountain range to the south-west were visible along with various forests that dotted the landscape, but now that the group had arrived at the allocated location they weren't sure what to do next.

"So then, what now?" asked Angel. "We're at the location but there's no one here to great us."

"As a great calamari once said; 'It's a trap!'," replied Brian.

"What do you mean?" Nepgear asked Brian.

"I mean that the Dark Captains are probably waiting for us somewhere around here," responded Brian. "But what I can't understand is why they challenged me when they would know you lot would help me."

"Who cares, let's get 'em!" shouted Neptune with a smile. She then transformed into Purple Heart.

Angel stared at Purple Heart with amazement, he had never seen anyone transform before so he got quite the surprise when he saw Neptune transform next to him, he couldn't help but look at her breasts, thighs and hips with interest. Brian noticed it and merely shook his head.

"Can I transform too?" asked Plutia.

Neptune and Nepgear were quick to answer Plutia. "N-no need to transform, Plutie."

Brian noticed that the two of them were shivering and looked frightened just from Plutia's question, honestly Brian and Angel were wondering what Plutia was like in her HDD form, obviously it sounded as if she wasn't one to be messed with.

"Anyway, let's split up and search the area, if we don't find anything within an hour we will return here," said Brian.

The rest of the group nodded and decided to split into three groups; Angel and Plutia were one group, Neptune and Nepgear were the second group and Brian was the third, but only because he complained about being in a group on the first place plus he could get around more quickly.

"Good luck everyone," said Nepgear as she transformed into Purple Sister.

Brian nodded before running towards the south, then Purple Heart and Purple Sister headed west which left Angel and Plutia to venture east. For the next thirty minutes no one had any luck in discovering the location of the Dark Captains; Brian found only an empty cave, Purple Heart and Purple Sister found only trees after trees and the peaks of the mountain range, Angel and Plutia didn't even find anything remotely interesting to mention.

As Purple Heart stood on the leafy ground she sighed, there was nothing to be found at all, perhaps it was just a set up by the Dark Captains to annoy them, or maybe Planeptune was under attack, either way it was drastic to her. She turned around and saw Purple Sister sitting on a log with a depressed face, she too had failed to look for anything and at the moment she was glancing around.

"Hey, Nep Jr, let's head back to the meeting spot now, there isn't anything for us to find here," Purple Heart said.

"Sure, let's head back."

As the two of them flew into the air and moved towards the meeting area Purple Heart began to tally the number of minutes they had been searching for the Dark Captains; it summed up to nearly fifty minutes.

 _I wonder if the others had better luck than us, if so then I hope they are all right._

As they retraced their steps towards the meeting spot their thoughts were distracted by what sounded like a fight taking place nearby, but they weren't sure which direction it was coming from, that was until Purple Sister looked towards the west and saw strands of blue energy amid the treetops, then they heard shouting and after several seconds the energy began to disappear.

"Neptune! Over there" shouted Purple Sister.

Purple Heart looked at what her younger sister was shouting at and saw the strands of blue energy disappearing and the last sounds of crashing trees fell silent, she materialised her sword and, along with Purple Sister, flew in the direction of the attack.

"I presume that the Dark Captains have been found then," said Purple Heart. "But by whom?"

* * *

Brian walked past the rugged cliff faces and kept glancing around him to see if there was any signs of the Dark Captains, but none had appeared so far. Brian attempted to whistle to pass the time but utterly failed as globs of spit flew out of his mouth in a vain attempt to master the art of whistling, adding to his annoyance. So instead of whistling he decided to count how many minutes it had been since they spit up; by searching through his mind he summarised it had been around thirty two minutes since they had gone their separate ways.

"Well I've still got some time to kill, I guess I'll go check the area to the south-east before heading back."

As Brian walked towards the south-east he still couldn't find any trace of the Dark Captains, let alone any sign of all living creatures, this confused Brian as he expected to hear the sounds of birds and strange four legged warm-blooded creatures to be wandering about at this time of day, but to his surprise there wasn't any sort of animal in sight nor one to be heard from miles and miles around.

"Hmm, this is odd," muttered Brian. "So where are they?"

He continued to walk down his chosen path and still there was no sign of the animals, it was starting to creep up on Brian that something wasn't right, his suspicion got only worse as he continued down the path. Eventually he felt as if there was someone in the shrubbery nearby following him, it then eventually came to a point that after three minutes later Brian could actually hear someone walking around the undergrowth.

"That's it, I've had enough of this. Come out and face me already!" challenged Brian.

Suddenly the bushes parted and Lothar stepped forward until he was ten feet away from Brian, and from what Brian could summarise from the look on Lothar's face the bloodthirstiest of the Dark Captains was not pleased to see him again, he was gripping onto his war-hammer tightly and kept snarling at Brian.

"Glad to see that you made it," growled Lothar. "Now then, where are those pesky acquaintances of yours strutting about?"

"I honestly don't know," replied Brian. "But how about we finish what we started?"

"That has my agreement, let's get killing!"

The two of them stared at one another for what felt like hours but in reality it was merely several seconds, then the two men charged at each other. Brian drew his sword and swung it at Lothar who parried it with his war-hammer, this action of slashing and blocking continued until Brian sidestepped past Lothar and slashed his right arm, but a hand grabbed his head and he was thrown towards a tree, which he barely missed.

"Pah, lucky hit," grunted Lothar as he tightened his grip on his war-hammer and charged at Brian.

Brian managed to stand up before being hit in the chest by the attack, sending him flying into a tree. He spat out blood as he attempted to get up but Lothar grabbed Brian and hauled him into the air.

"I had hoped that you would have put up a challenge like last time. Any last words before I smash your head into pieces?"

"Yeah, I've got something to say; never piss me off!"

Suddenly Brian was engulfed with Share Energy and he grabbed Lothar's war-hammer before kicking him in the face, Lothar lost his grip on Brian and staggered backwards. He looked up and saw Brian with his sword in his right hand and Lothar's war-hammer in his left hand.

"Tch, bastard," growled Lothar as he readied his fists.

"Bring it on!" shouted Brian as he charged.

Brian swung the war-hammer at Lothar's face and swung his sword down at his chest, both failed to hit their mark, instead the weight of the war-hammer made things harder for Brian. Lothar, seeing an opening, then attacked by smashing his right fist into Brian's face and his left fist into Brian's gut.

"Come on, Shadow Walker, you can do better than that," taunted Lothar.

"Shut … UP! Yelled Brian as his sword cut into Lothar's flesh around the left leg, causing blood to flow down the wound. Brian then swung the war-hammer up towards Lothar's face once more, but Lothar caught the weapon and kicked Brian in the face.

"Thanks for giving me my war-hammer back," thanked Lothar. "Now then, prepare to die!"

"Not … today," grunted Brian as he kept dodging the war-hammer strikes.

Brian saw an opening and slashed Lothar along the right leg and as he jumped up he slashed Lothar across the chest, the Dark Captain yelled at Brian as the young man managed to avoid several more strikes and stood next to a tree, he looked tired as he panted heavily.

"Time to get serious," said Brian.

"Got that right, you bloody pest," remarked Lothar as he held is war-hammer in two hands. "Now then, **Pounding Death!** "

Lothar sprang forward and swung his weapon at Brian who parried it with his sword, but it was of little use as Brian was sent spiralling into a tree, the attack didn't stop as it smashed into a nearby tree, sending it crashing to the ground. Brian tried to stand up but a hand grabbed him from the back of the neck and threw him towards Lothar.

"We can't have you running away now, can we?" said a voice.

Lothar looked at the new person who had entered the fight; it was Agandur's Right Hand. "About time you showed up, but you're too late to kill the boy; he's mine to slaughter."

As Lothar swung his war-hammer down at Brian the Right Hand drew his sword and blocked the attack, causing Lothar to look at him in confusion. "The hell do you think you're doing? The Shadow Walker has to die!"

"No, we need him alive," replied Agandur's Right Hand. "He will be necessary for our objective."

"Pah, as if I'm gonna be taken alive by you lot," grunted Brian.

Brian then kicked Lothar in the shins and jumped up to face the two Dark Captains, his eyes flared fiercely blue as the Share Energy started to glow brightly. His sword started to gather energy and he looked up to see Lothar with a worried expression while Agandur's Right Hand looked rather puzzled.

"Get ready to die!" shouted Brian. " **Shattering Earth!** "

Brian then stabbed his sword into the ground and suddenly an earthquake hit them, blue energy slowed out from the crevices on the ground and trees fell to the ground in splinters, Lothar growled and charged at Brian but failed to get close to him as a wave of Share Energy crashed into him, the force of the impact almost tore his arms off. Agandur's Right Hand got hit several times but managed to escape from the destruction around him by running away behind several boulders.

 _Tch, not bad, Shadow Walker. So that's what it felt like for those two idiots back at the Basilicom. Actually, where is Kharzark anyway? I thought he was trailing behind me._

Agandur's Right Hand then looked at the sky and saw the Goddesses of Planeptune flying towards the scene of the action, he gritted his teeth in anger as he knew that his plans would come to naught if they joined the fray. But what happened next surprised him; several fireballs were launched into the air and exploded as soon as they made impact with the Goddesses. The Right Hand smirked, he knew who that was.

 _Well then, I guess Kharzark managed to catch up after all, I guess I can be grateful for that then. It's a possibility that we might get lucky and kill the Goddesses and take the Shadow Walker with us as a hostage after all. Now then, to battle!_

Agandur's Right Hand then drew his longsword and ran towards the battle, he could hear Lothar clashing with the boy and he could also see that the Goddesses had descended down to the ground and were fighting Kharzark, maybe the plan could work after all with an added bonus; the death of the Goddesses of Planeptune. As he reached the battlefield he heard the younger Goddesses saying " **M. !** " and then he watched as Kharzark was smashed into the ground, his armour was breaking apart as was Lothar's armour which had been badly damaged by the earthquake attack.

"Huh, guess this'll be harder than I anticipated," mumbled the Right Hand.

Kharzark stood up and cracked his neck, then he held out his left and uttered the words " **Flame Cloak!** " His entire body became engulfed in fire, adding to his already frightening demeanour.

"Come and get me, CPUs!" shouted Kharzark as he charged at Purple Heart, who answered the challenge and swung her sword at the Interrogator who parried it with his blade, the slashing and slicing of blade against blade sent sparks across the area while Purple Heart kept herself away from the flame cloak that Kharzark had surrounded himself with.

Purple Sister was distracted form helping her elder sibling by the constant attacks from Agandur's Right Hand, he barraged her with several swings and slices from his sword and the occasional lightning bolt magical attacks. As Purple Sister dodged a swing of the sword she attempted to fly over her opponent and attack from behind, but as she flew over him she felt a sting of pain and noticed that she had been hit by the Right Hand's longsword along her left leg, this distraction was enough for the Dark Captain to grab her other leg and throw her to the ground, causing Purple Sister to cry out in pain.

"I can't let you get the better of me, girl, this is the end for you," taunted Agandur's Right Hand as he prepared to stab her in the throat.

Purple Sister looked over at her older sister and saw her in a life-or-death struggle with Kharzark who was appearing to be getting worn out from the strain of using magic, her glance was then placed upon Brian who was using throwing knives against Lothar, who looked rather pissed off.

"Now then, die," said Agandur's Right Hand.

Purple Sister closed her eyes and waited for the fateful blow, despite the desperate shouting from both Purple Heart and Brian, but the blow never came. She then opened her eyes fearfully and saw what was happening before her; Agandur's Right Hand was dangling upside down from what looked like a combination of a wipe and a sword, suddenly she got a dreadful feeling and looked at the owner of the weapon.

She was staring at a floating woman who was wearing a tank top like bustier piece with thin straps and button-like pieces with multiple holes in the centre, a neck piece with a glowing line and pink line below it, small straps connecting to her bikini bottom piece, gloves that were almost shoulder length with multiple pink pieces, and long boots that connected to the outfit. She had dark purple hair that reached down most of her back and her bangs covered most of her forehead, she also had a wicked grin across her face, her breasts were also considerably large. This was Iris Heart, better known as Plutia.

"Plutia?" asked Purple Sister as her spine shivered in fear.

"Dear oh dear, you shouldn't be hurting my pets, filthy insect," said Iris Heart in her sadistic way.

The fighting had ceased as soon as Iris Heart had joined the fray, but she wasn't the only new contender. Standing near her on the ground was Angel, and he too had a sadistic grin on his face as he gripped he sword with two hands.

"I didn't know that your friend was a sadist too," Purple Heart said to Brian.

"I was just as surprised when I first noticed it as well, and well … he's also a masochist, I found that out after he got beaten up by some thugs and he, well, he enjoyed it. I think he was begging for more pain," mentioned Brian with a shudder.

"What the devil?!" yelled the Right Hand as he was thrown around the area by Iris Heart.

"Now let me hear your screams!" shouted Iris Heart while laughing.

Lothar watched as his leader was thrown around by the overly sadistic CPU, who looked as of she was enjoying the whole thing. Lothar couldn't help but start to fear the sadists. His discomfort wasn't helped when Angel started to advance towards him.

"You can stay just right there, it will be better for the both of us if you kept still. This won't hurt … much," Angel said in a slightly calm tone. "Now then, writhe in agony!"

"Damn this kid! Oi, Kharzark, get over here!" shouted Lothar as he blocked Angel's attack.

"I'm having trouble over here if you haven't noticed!" responded Kharzark.

" **Cross Combination!** " shouted Purple Heart.

Kharzark's flame cloak disappeared as he was hit by a barrage of slash attacks by Purple Heart, he then staggered backwards until he lost his balance and crashed into Angel.

"About time you helped," grumbled Lothar.

Angel stood up and touched his left cheek, he pulled his hand back and saw blood, his own blood, on the palm of his hand. He looked at Kharzark and did his sadistic smile again, this time it was Kharzark who got shivers down his spine, usually it would be him that would cause the shivering but now he was being stared down by a kid.

"Not enough pain," mumbled Angel. "Care to dish out some more onto me?"

"The hell is wrong with you kid?!" yelled Lothar as he got Kharzark back onto his feet.

Purple Sister had gotten back onto her feet and was prepared to charge back into battle, until her older sister approached her, shaking her head.

"No, leave them to the sadists of the group," Purple Heart told her sister. "They'll be able to handle things from here. It'll be best if we take care of Brian for now, he looks worn out."

Purple Sister nodded and together the two sisters ran over to Brian, who had fallen to the ground from exhaustion and was leaning against a tree that had miraculously remained untouched by his shattering earth attack. He was bleeding from several gashes from his arms and legs and he had a bloodied nose from a head-butt that Lothar had given him beforehand.

"Are you ok, Brian?" asked Purple Sister.

"Does it look like I'm alright?" replied Brian sarcastically. He was still surrounded by Share Energy yet it had died down, his eyes were still flaring blue, not to mention he looked pissed.

"Those two can take it from here, our enemy is holding on but they'll break soon," said Purple Heart.

Brian nodded. "Looks as if we'll win after all. But damn, I overdid it again with that special attack."

"You just have to learn how to control your abilities during a fight, that's all you need; training," responded Purple Heart.

"Heh, you know, you're a lot easier to deal with when you're in your HDD form, Neptune," said Brian with a smirk.

Purple Heart giggled in response, leaving Purple Sister to try and treat Brian's wounds as best she could. Meanwhile, Angel was slashing and parring at Lothar and Kharzark at the same time, making sure to leave a mark on their bodies. Kharzark held up his left hand and shouted " **Fireball!** ", the ball of fire flew at Angel and exploded as it made contact with his sword as he attempted to bloke it, the explosion blasted him back against a tree, the fire had burnt some of his jacket and a sleeve had been burnt off.

"Now we can get him," grunted Kharzark.

Kharzark then ran forward as Lothat turned his attention back at the rest of the group, but as Kharzark charged at Angel a body crashed into him and the both of them fell to the ground, Kharzark looked up at the person who had been sent flying into him and saw Agandur's Right Hand, he had several bloodied scars across his face and his right arm had been dislocated.

"Guh, we need to fall back before these bloody sadists actually kill us," mumbled the Right Hand.

"I know that," replied Kharzark as the two of them were helped up by Lothar, who was looking concerned about their current situation.

"Let's get out of here," declared Lothar. "I'd rather not be killed by two angry maniacs when I'm tired."

"That makes two of us," responded Agandur's Right Hand, who winced at the pain in his dislocated arm. "I've got one last attack for them. Go on, get out of here, now!"

As Kharzark and Lothar began to retreat from the battlefield Iris Heart helped Angel back onto his feet, she then looked at the retreating group with rage.

"How dare you hurt my toys, I'm going to torture you slowly and make you all my pets, especially you, bald headed man."

Agandur's Right Hand snarled at Iris Heart. "Screw you, beast, **Savage Lightning Storm!** "

Agandur's Right Hand then held his left hand up and a rune appeared in the air, then thunder was heard and dozens of bolts of lightning began to strike the ground, new cracks and craters appeared because of the attack all while the Dark Captains escaped back towards the abandoned farmhouse. The attack didn't last long but it was enough for the Dark Captains to get away.

"Nice one, Plutie," praised Angel.

"Why thank you," responded Iris Heart as she stood next to him and patted him on the head. "I think you'll be my new favourite plaything."

"Come on, Sadie, you should revert back to normal now," suggested Purple Heart.

"Hmmm … no, I think I'll remain like this for a while," said Iris Heart. "I want to get along better with Angie, and Bri-Bri over there."

"Angie? And why me?!" asked Brian nervously.

"Angie is my pet name for Angel, and I also think Bri-Bri suites you," replied Iris Heart with a grin.

Brian groaned and fell back against the tree he was previously leaning on, the Share Energy had died down and his eyes had reverted back to normal.. "Whatever. Can we all go back now? It'll be too hard to track the Dark Captains in this forest, not to mention that they could be anywhere right now."

"I suppose we'll have to go back," sighed Purple Heart.

Iris Heart nodded then grabbed Angel and held onto him, the back of his head was firmly pressed against her breasts much to his delighted. Brian shook his head and sighed, he could see that Angel was having a good time already, even though Brian knew that Angel wished it was his face instead of the back of the head.

"I'll see you all back at the Basilicom, try and keep up," said Iris Heart as she flew into the air with Angel.

"Come on, Bri-Bri, let's get going," said Purple Heart.

Purple Sister chuckled as Brian pouted at the mentioning of his nickname. He stood up and was grabbed by Purple Heart very much in the same manner as Iris Heart had done to Angel. The Goddesses flew into the air with Brian and made their way back to Planeptune, while trying to keep Brian calm the whole way back.

"I don't really like flying you know," mentioned Brian. "I'd rather walk the way back if you don't mind."

"It's quicker this way, besides, you aren't afraid of heights aren't you?" asked Purple Heart with a smirk.

"I-I'm not afraid, I just don't like flying. Anyway, why did you have to put the back of my had up against your breasts?"

"I thought it would be more comfortable this way."

Brian sighed and looked at Purple Sister for assistance, but it wasn't forthcoming as she looked back at him and chuckled. So for the rest of the journey back to the Basilicom Brian had to endure being pressed up against Purple Heart's breasts, which were rather soft he noted. But one question remained burnt in his mind; what happens now?

* * *

"That … was … too close," gasped Lothar.

"Damn right," commented Kharzark.

Agandur's Right Hand clenched his teeth on a large stick and, with speed and a large crack, snapped his right arm back into place, the pain was severe enough for him to bite the stick in half.

"Urgh, that's better. Anyway, I've decided that we all have to move out," declared the Right Hand.

"We're being split up now?" asked Kharzark as he mended his armour back into place. "Care to explain what's going to happen?"

"Very well, Severia is already in Lowee and is spreading our influence up there, not to mention the amount of monsters that are being put under her control," explained Agandur's Right Hand. "That leaves two other nations to go, so Lothar will go to Lastation while you, Kharzark, will head to Leanbox. There are already maps at your disposal in the farmhouse, oh, and each of you take five Dark Followers each, I'll take the remaining two."

"Alright then, but what are you going to do?" asked Lothar.

"I'm going to establish ourselves more thoroughly here," replied Agandur's Right Hand. "Now get going once you've all rested enough."

As the Right Hand sat down on a badly mended chair he then knew that whatever will happen next, bloodshed will follow in their wake.


	23. Friendship and Peanut Butter

**Chapter 22: Friendship and Peanut Butter**

The flight back to the Basilicom wasn't as dangerous as Brian had originally thought it would be, in fact, he would describe it as rather pleasant once you got use to it, the air flowing through the hair and across the face felt nice in his mind, but for Purple Heart and Purple Sister it wasn't as much of a big deal with them, they've all flown in the air too many times to count. As the group flew over the city and as the Basilicom was just ahead of them Brian did his best to ignore the looks on the citizen's faces as they looked up at the flying objects that soared through the air towards their destination, most looks were directed towards him though as Brian could sense their … distaste.

Purple Heart felt Brian twitch and was quick to question him. "Is something the matter? You're twitching again."

"Huh? Er … it's fine. But those citizens of yours are giving me the cold stare," replied Brian.

"Yes, I've noticed that as well. I'm afraid there is little that can be done to soften their appearance of you."

"It's alright, I suppose, I'll never know the buggers anyway."

Purple Heart was going to comment about what Brian said but persuaded herself against it, she had remembered that Brian wasn't the most kind-hearted person that had ever graced the land of Gamindustri, yet she hoped to somehow change that with the help of the other CPUs.

Once they arrived on the balcony Brian looked relieved to be on solid ground, well, if one would count standing on a balcony on the tallest tower in all of Planeptune, and possibly all of Gamindustri, solid ground. When they entered they found Plutia, who had reverted back to human form, sowing Angel's jacket back together with thread and needles. Angel was sitting on the couch and was being treated by Compa, they also noticed that a scar had made its home on his left cheek, IF was nowhere to be seen though but Peashy happened to be watching what Plutia was doing closely and didn't see the group come in. Histoire was in a corner of the room and sighed with relief as she saw the rest of the group enter.

"Good to see you all back in one piece," said Histoire. "I got worried after I saw Angel's injuries."

"I'm sure he would have wanted more," mumbled Brian as he leaned against the wall.

Histoire looked at Brian with a puzzled face, but her only response was a slight shiver from Brian. When she looked over at Purple Heart and Purple Sister they both shook their heads, it looked as if Purple Sister was also sweating.

"Oooooh, helloooo Neppy, Neppy Jr. and Bri-Bri" greeted Plutia. She had finished sowing the mostly burned sleeve back onto Angel's jacket, with some added material that patched it all up together. It became clear that Angel would have to get new clothes at some point.

"Hello, Plutie," Purple Heart greeted back. She then reverted back to her human form along with Purple Sister.

"So then, how's it all going you two?" Neptune asked Plutia and Angel.

"Well, I might have to return back home by tomorrow morning," replied Plutia in a saddened tone.

"You have a duty as a CPU to look after the needs of your people, and I'm not the only one telling you this, the other me is telling you the exact same thing," lectured Histoire with her arms folded. "While it is nice that you and Peashy decided to visit I recently got a call from your Histoire who informed me that you have been slacking off work, again."

Plutia looked depressed as she heard the word 'work' and sat down on the couch next to Angel on his right, she looked glum as the prospect of working spread into her mind.

"Heeeey, there's no need to feel down you know," beamed Neptune as she leaned close towards Plutia. "Work isn't that important you know."

"Work is important!" yelled Histoire, Brian could swear that veins were sticking out of her forehead.

"Yikes! Histy is getting Pisty!" commented Neptune carelessly.

That set Histoire off into rage mode as she grabbed Neptune by the left ear and dragged her out of the room and down the corridor, no doubt to her office to lecture her about the importance of work. The event left everyone feeling a tad chilly down their spines, it became clear to both Brian and Angel that annoying Histoire was the second worst idea ever, well in Brian's case anyway as he believed that annoying Plutia was the first worst idea.

"Anyway, who's up for some tasty snacks?" Compa asked everyone.

That got the attention of everyone in the room, especially Peashy who jumped in the air with excitement while yelling in happiness. With a smile Compa looked over at Brian and asked him a question.

"What type of snacks do you prefer, Bri-Bri?"

"Sandwiches," replied Brian with a straight face.

"Oh, well in that case I'll make some sandwiches then."

"By the way, Compa, where's IF?" asked Brian.

"She went down to the Guild not long ago, she said that those meanies would loose and decided to get a head start against them by investigating their movements, or something like that anyway."

"Alright then, thanks."

Compa then left to go to the kitchen, leaving Brian leaning against the wall closest to the TV while he cleaned up his remaining wounds, Angel remained seated on the couch and fired up the TV and Neptune's console to play any game he could find while Plutia had moved on from looking gloomy to making what looked like a doll of some sort. Nepgear followed Compa to the kitchen to help volunteer for creating sandwiches. This carried on for a while as Compa and Nepgear made the sandwiches.

In the kitchen Compa cut up different ingredients, which included lettuce, tomatoes, ham and cheese, while Nepgear got bread ready by buttering it. As the two of them continued with their chosen task Nepgear looked over at Compa with a worried expression.

"Hey, Compa, have you noticed how whenever people mention Brian or if they ever see him they all start to get nervous and even, well, unhappy in a way?"

"Well I heard someone on the streets yesterday evening talking about the incident yesterday, I wasn't pleased with the way they went on about Bri-Bri," replied Compa.

"I was thinking; what would happen if everyone in Planeptune disliked Brian and then realised he was staying here? Would that mean a loss in faith for big sis and I?"

"Maybe, I'm not sure about it."

Nepgear sighed, she was worried about the situation that they had gotten themselves into. But they were all alive and, for the moment, content and perhaps even happy.

* * *

IF walked down the paved pathway along the street away from the Guild, her hands were in the pockets of her jacket and a mixed expression on her face. Her trip to the Guild for information about suspicious activities had been for naught as there had been no signs of any sort of suspicious activities, yet she convinced some of her contacts to keep an eye out for anything just in case. She sighed heavily and drifted to her thoughts.

 _There is nothing else left to do but wait I suppose, but still, I'm not sure what to do now. I suppose I could get Brian and Angel to do a few quests with me, it'll get them some money at least._

The wind had begun to pick up pace and some of IF's hair was blown across her face, she brushed it back and continued to walk back to the Basilicom while trying to enjoy the cool air that was blowing across the city, yet as she crossed the street and walked past a cafe she couldn't help but overhear two ladies talking about something, or rather someone. The ladies were sitting around a small plastic table with one cup of tee and a coffee, all looked fresh.

"I saw the CPUs up and about in the air not long ago, and they were carrying two young men, the first one got there way ahead of the second one, and that second one, well … it's _him_ ," said the first lady venomously.

"Ah, that one eh? What's he doing with the CPUs?" asked the second lady with interest.

"I think he's staying with them. Why they're letting him stay there is beyond me."

"True, he did cause a large amount of damage, they're still repairing it all now."

IF shook her head, she knew that Brian had become unpopular with the population of Planeptune but sounded like almost everyone in the city disliked him. At any rate, she knew that having a chat with Brian and discussing a way to fix the situation would be the best way to get started. With that thought she continued on her way back to the Basilicom, her new goal: getting Brian out and about to help the people of Planeptune.

Once IF had reached and entered the Basilicom and arrived at the floor she wanted to go on she walked down the corridor and arrived at the doorway to the main room, much to her surprise she saw Brian rummaging through the cupboards while a confused Compa watched him.

"Are you sure you don't have any peanut butter here?" asked Brian as he continued his search in the upper cupboards.

"I don't know, but why are you looking for it?" responded Compa.

"Peanut butter, ham and cheese sandwiches of course," replied Brian proudly.

IF continued to stand at the doorway, this time a look of disgust stretched across her face, who would in their right mind have a peanut butter, ham and cheese sandwich she reasoned. IF then looked over at Nepgear and Peashy who were happily eating sandwiches that appeared to have lettuce in it, the rest of its contents were hard to see, then IF's gaze turned at Plutia who was sitting next to Angel and he looked as if he was holding a doll of himself, he looked to be actually happy with it as a small smile on the corner of his lip could be seen, IF had been made aware that a happy Angel was rare.

However, she could not see Neptune anywhere, neither could she see Histoire. As IF entered the room she was met by Compa's gaze and smile.

"Welcome back, Iffy," Compa greeted with a smile.

"Hey, Compa, you got any of those sandwiches left?" asked IF. "I forgot to pack a snack."

"There's a few left, you might want to get them before all get eaten," replied Compa as she pointed to a plate on the kitchen bench.

IF nodded as thanks and grabbed a lettuce, tomato and ham sandwich, she took a bite out of it and she let out a happy sigh as her taste buds agreed with the flavour. Her thoughts were distracted by Brian as he closed the cupboard doors with an unhappy groan.

"Dammit, you sure there's no peanut butter around here?" asked Brian.

"There is none here, and anyway, why do you even want it with ham and cheese?" responded IF with a puzzled look.

"It is an utterly exquisite cuisine that I invented when I was a wee lad," answered Brian with a smirk while he had his arms folded.

"It doesn't sound appetising to me," commented IF.

"Well that's because you haven't tried it yet."

"And I don't intend to."

"Aw, look at the two of you, you're all such good friends," said Compa with a big smile.

"Well, I suppose we're good friends," remarked IF with a small smile of her own.

"By Jupiter, is everyone around here obsessed with having friends?" asked Brian with a sigh.

"It's good to have friends you know," replied Compa. "It makes your life more memorable."

"The friends I had back in my home dimension were asses, but as for any friends from my younger childhood, well, I have no memory of what it was like, it's all blocked up and inaccessible."

IF and Compa weren't sure how to respond to that, especially when they saw the look on Brian's face; he looked depressed, and they knew that it wasn't because of the lack of peanut butter.

Angel and Plutia meanwhile were having a conversation about the dolls that Plutia makes, for some reason Angel felt rather at home around Plutia despite her lack of certain 'assets' while in human form, but he still found her as someone who he could have a reasonable friendship with, after all, he did enjoy being near her CPU form, they were both sadists and he believed that she might be a masochist. It became clear to the others that the two of them were similar in characteristics.

"So you make these kind of dolls based off all of your friends?" asked Angel.

Plutia responded with a nod. Angle then looked back at his doll-self and was amazed at how it looked like him, it even had the scar across the left cheek and the burnt/stitched up jacket, even the eyes were purple and the hair covered his left eye. Angel was impressed, he was even surprised about how fast she actually made it.

"Have you made these kind of things for everyone here?" he asked.

"Nearly, but I keep getting distracted by work," replied Plutia.

Angel could sense Plutia's displeasure of the word work, from what Angel could gather Neptune also hated work. The thought of the Goddesses of Planpetune and their hatred of work suddenly crossed his mind as he chuckled to himself.

 _Planpetunian minds think alike after all, especially if they are Goddesses._

"Huh? Why are you chuckling?" asked Plutia.

"Meh, no real reason," replied Angel as he rubbed Plutia's head with his right hand, causing her to smile in happiness.

Brian had glanced over at the two of them and smirked, it was extremely rare for Angel to show any signs of affection let alone actually touch someone with care.

 _Who knows, Angel, perhaps you will get over your peculiar personality … perhaps._

Brian's thoughts were distracted by Nepgear as she walked over to Brian and smiled, Peashy was eating the last of the sandwiches while Compa and IF were having a private conversation of their own.

"Hey, Brian, what are you going to do now?" asked Nepgear. "I'm sure there's a way for the people to change their opinion of you."

"I don't really care what their opinion of me is like, I know that it will never concern me. But as for what will happen next, well, I'm thinking of leaving Planeptune for a while," replied Brian as he put his hands under his chin.

"Leave Planeptune? Why? Goodness, is it because of us?"

"No, it isn't because of you or the others, but I do want to experience the rest of Gamindustri in the other nations, besides, back from where I come from they say that time is the best healer, therefore if I was to leave for a few weeks then the citizen's opinion of me will calm down."

"I see, well that makes sense actually."

"At any rate I'll have to talk to Histoire about it, hopefully she hasn't talked Neptune to death."

Nepgear giggled at the remark, Brian too had a light chuckle at the thought of Histoire lecturing Neptune until the pudding loving Goddess died of boredom.

"Well, catch ya later, Nepgear," parted Brian as he began to walk out to the hallway, he was interrupted by IF voice as he heard her behind him.

"Hmm? Was there something you wanted IF?" asked Brian.

"I wanted to know if you want to go and do a few quests tomorrow, I'm going to ask Angel as well," replied IF. "It'll be good for the both of you, plus you can finally get some credits to spend on whatever you two want."

"Interesting offer, well, depending on what's happening tomorrow I suppose I can go along with you."

"Depending what's going on? Is there something that we're not aware of?"

"Nepgear already knows this, but I'm going to ask Histoire about her thoughts on me, and possibly Angel, going to the other nations for a few weeks, mainly for experiencing the rest of Gamindustri and to give time for the citizens of Planeptune to get over what happened."

"Hmm, good idea, I was going to ask at some point if you were going to consider about travelling to the other nations."

"Well I gotta go and see Histoire now, and possibly save Neptune from being turned into mush. Bye."

Brian then walked out of the room and down the hallway, heading for Histoire's office.

* * *

"… and that is why you should do more work instead of lazing about playing games and visiting the other CPUs," finished Histoire with her arms folded in victory, at least she hoped.

Neptune had been forced to listen to the lecture for some time, and it had taken a toll on her. She felt as if her brain had turned to mush and her legs had gotten stiff, they also felt numb as she had been forced to sit on the ground with her knees. Despite being subjected to the fury of Histoire and her lecture Neptune hadn't listened to most of it, instead opting to focus her mind on one thing; pudding.

"Are you even listening to me?" asked Histoire in a slightly annoyed tone.

"Mmmm … pudding …," drooled Neptune as she focused her mind on her favourite dish.

"This is getting ridiculous," sighed Histoire. She was saved from the idiocy of Neptune by a few knocks on the door, this woke Neptune up from her daydream.

"Yes! I'm saved!" exclaimed Neptune as she jumped in the air, waving her arms around as the numbness of her legs miraculously disappeared.

"I'm not here to save you, Neptune, I'm here to talk to Histoire," informed the voice at the door.

"Come in then," said Histoire.

The door opened to reveal Brian with his hands in his pant's pockets and a stern look on his face, Neptune was glad to see him nonetheless.

"Yahoo! Bri-Bri has come to save the day!" Neptune cried out excitedly.

"As I said just before, I'm here to see Histoire, not to save you from being lectured."

"Aw come on, Bri-Bri, why wouldn't you want to save your damsel in distress?"

"One, you're not a damsel, far from it actually. Two, stop calling me Bri-Bri, I can understand why Compa calls me that since she has trouble with names but you can actually say my name, so why keep calling me that damn nickname?"

"Cause I like it."

Brian sighed deeply, he wasn't getting anywhere with this purple Goddess. "Whatever. Now if you don't mind I want to talk to Histoire about something."

"Can I listen to this gossip?"

"This isn't gossip, but I suppose it'll concern you eventually so why not."

Brian returned his gaze to Histoire, keeping his stern face intact. "Histoire, is there a chance that me and Angel can go adventuring to one of the other nations at some point within the next few days?"

"I suppose so, it'll be good for the two of you to see the rest of this world," replied Histoire.

Neptune wasn't looking happy about the suggestion. "Why do you wanna leave Planeptune? The other nations aren't as great as my beloved country," pouted Neptune.

"It'll only be for a few weeks, so don't sorry about it," responded Brian.

"Regarding your suggestion, how will you and Angel choose which nation to visit first?" asked Histoire.

"Let the other Goddesses know about it and let them decide," replied Brian. "I'll be playing a game on Neptune's TV if you need anything. Come on, Neptune, I'll save you just this once to play a game."

"Really? Sweat!" exclaimed Neptune as she ran ahead of Brian. The young man shook his head and closed the door as he left the office, leaving Histoire behind to make the arrangements with the other CPUs. She looked at the large amount of paperwork that surrounded her and sighed.

"Now how am I supposed to get Neptune to deal with all this paperwork?"

 **A/N: It's going to be a tad more peaceful for the moment, so that means less to no battle scenes for a while. It'll instead focus on progressing the story forward and deepen the relationships between the characters, at least an attempt to do so anyway. On a side note I've been having a few problems lately so updating might get slower, yet again it might not. Nonetheless, have a good day readers.**


	24. Decision Making

**Chapter 23: Decision Making  
**

For many people work was just a thing that took up too much of their time, others believed that work was the uttermost important part of a person's life and that by doing enough work you will get anywhere in life. This was certainly true with Noire, Lady Black Heart of Lastation, who had been claimed to be the most hard working of all the CPUs of Gaminudstri. Because of this she had the respect and faith of the citizens of Lastation, but it also had a downside to it. The main, and possibly only, topic was her lack of friends. This wasn't completely true, but it wasn't entirely false either, mainly because she would hang out with the other CPUs but she would also cut herself off from the world and do what she would prefer to do everyday: work.

Noire sat on her large black chair at her desk in the large, Gothic styled, office with numerous amounts of paperwork littering the desk in different piles that stood up to around 2-3 feet high. Normally Noire would have left some of it for Kei to do, but her Oracle had taken the liberty of leaving early for the day to get to grips with being a manager of a company. Kei had always wanted to start her own business and so far her dream had come true, even though she was still required to serve as the Oracle of Lastation, which she didn't mind at all.

Today's workload was larger than yesterdays or even the day before, this wasn't unusual, especially since Lastation was still growing in terms of industry. As Noire signed her signature on the various different work related paper she heard the sound of her computer telling her there was a call, she looked at the computer in annoyance and opened the video chat. She was staring at Histoire's tired face.

"Oh, I didn't expect you at all," said Noire. "I thought it was Neptune trying to insult me again."

"I'm sorry if that is the case, but I wanted to speak to you," informed Histoire. "Normally I would have tried to get the other CPUs and the Oracles involved with this but I seem to have had some trouble in connecting to them."

"Well I think Vert would be playing Four Goddesses Online again while Blanc could be secretly trying to get her novel finished, apart from that I can't be certain about their Oracles, though I can imagine Mina getting involved with those troublesome twins. Anyway, what do you want?"

"It's about Brian and Angel. Brian caused quite the disturbance among the citizens of Planeptune and wants him and Angel to leave for a few weeks, so I want to see if you or one of the other CPUs are able to accommodate the two of them for a week each."

"Hmm, sounds interesting. I heard about what Brian did there and I'm not surprised that the people don't like him, but I am perfectly sure that we can somehow come up with an arrangement for the two of them."

"Thank you, Noire. I'll leave it in your hands to settle the matter."

Histoire then exited the video chat, leaving Noire in a thoughtful state. She knew it was for the best that the young men get out of Planeptune and experience the rest of what Gamindustri has to offer, but how would she and the other CPUs decide on who would get to be their host?

 _I will have to tell the others about it and bring them here, at least try to anyway, it'll be good for them to get out once for a while. I'm sure they are not doing anything terribly important that concerns their countries._

Suddenly Noire heard the sound of the elevator coming from down the hallway to her left, she glanced down the hallway at the Victorian/Gothic black styled elevator and saw Uni carrying a small pile of paperwork with her arms underneath it, she wasn't struggling with it as she walked towards Noire's desk. Once she got to the desk she carefully placed the pile down next to the completed paperwork pile with was situated on Noire's right.

"There, that's all done now," said Uni with pride. "Anything else for me to do? Don't worry I can do a lot more than just that small pile."

"I'm sure you can. Hmm, there is something that you can do," responded Noire. "Can you get to Lowee and inform Blanc that she needs to get over here?"

"Um, sure, but why? Couldn't you just use the video chat if you needed her?"

"Of course I would've used it already, but Histoire was trying to get into contact with her but failed, therefore I need you to go over there instead."

"Sure, I can do that. But still, why?"

"Because Histoire recently told me that Brian and his friend, Angel, will be leaving Planeptune for a while and one of us CPUs have to be a host to them. Now, you'll go to Lowee and round up Blanc while I'll go to Leanbox and get Vert out of her room."

Uni started to get brightened up after hearing the explanation. "Alright then, I get to it at once!"

Uni then transformed in Black Sister and flew out of the open door that led to the balcony and made her way towards Lowee. She noticed that it was past mid-day, perhaps about 2 pm or 3 pm at least. Noire swiftly followed suite and transformed into Black Heart before heading south-west towards Leanbox

"Actually, if I get this over with quickly I would have found a way to surpass Noire by getting work done quickly and efficiently," muttered Black Sister. "Alright then, lets do this!"

With her challenge in mind Black Sister raced forth through the air and headed north-west towards Lowee, hoping to get her mission over and done with before Noire could get back from Leanbox.

* * *

"Damn you brats! Get back here!" Blanc shouted at the twins.

Blanc was shouting at her younger twins sisters as they ran down the large hallways of Lowee's Basilicom, their charge; drawing all over Blanc's books, again. This time it was some of her 'secret' novels that she wrote, the fact that Rom and Ram knew about it was depressing enough but the fact that they had drawn pictures of their elder sibling during one of her rages was enough to have sent Blanc into a blood-lust filled rage.

"I said get back here!"

"Not gonna happen!" laughed Ram as the twins ran past a corner.

Blanc wasn't in the mood for pranks, she had a lot of work to do. Work meaning 'writing' of course, and she needed to finish her novel as the upcoming novel convention was going to happen in about a week, and this time she intended to win first price, unlike what happened every single other time when her novel wasn't even mentioned. Blanc had already lost several hours of sleep every night due to her dedication in completing the novel, and it was starting to show as she had become increasingly tired and her control over her temper had shortened. Now she was being distracted by her younger sisters and that wasn't doing a good job on her mental state.

"Screw this, where is Mina when you need her?" grumbled Blanc as she chased Rom and Ram down the hallways.

Mina had been taking it easy since the day before, her reason was that the twins caused a prank that almost gave her a heart attack, since then she had been resting in her room until she was ready to resume her duties as Oracle and caretaker of Rom and Ram. Blanc had agreed to it during one of her reading times and thus didn't pay much attention once she got the gist of it.

As she chased the twins down the long, while walls and light blue paved hallways she reached the Basilicom library, Rom and Ram continued to run until they reached a corner and hid behind it to regain some breath, as the twins poked their heads around the corner they saw Blanc standing by the library entrance with a smile on her face.

"Hey, why is she calm?" asked Ram.

"I don't know," replied Rom.

They didn't know it but Blanc had regained her composure by looking at the library and remembered what she had said to Brian before they parted, ' _If you find yourself in Lowee stop by to see us in our Basilicom, I'll let you go through the library that I have_ '. She had enjoyed Brian's company during her stay in Planeptune and did enjoy his book, even though she failed to read the last two chapters in time, she had always wanted to have a friend who was passionate about books and she now believed that she had finally found said friend.

"Maybe we can keep calming her down like this every time we draw on her books," suggested Ram.

Rom giggled in response. The two of them then emerged and attempted to walk pass Blanc slowly and quietly, but they got quite the surprise when they heard Blanc speak.

"I heard what you said, Ram, and I'm going to let you lot off that easily." Blanc then turned around and glared at her little sisters, who only responded by laughing and running away again.

"Grr, stand still!" yelled Blanc as she resumed the chase.

This spectacle continued on for a while until Blanc finally got extremely fed up and materialised her hammer, she then started to throw it around the place until she calmed down enough for anyone to approach her without getting their face smashed in. After Blanc had finally calm down she gave up chasing her twin sisters and resumed to write her novel at her computer in her oversized and mostly empty room.

"Damn these annoyances," sighed Blanc as she finished a paragraph for her novel. "There, that's one more paragraph down and I think that concludes a chapter. Now then, do I get the main heroine to confess her feelings to the protagonist or leave that for a future chapter?"

As she thought it over several footsteps could be heard from the hallway, Blanc could easily hear them as their sounds echoed through the large hallways of the Basilicom, from what she could here there were a few people and at least one or two were running around. Suddenly her doors, which were closed, were swung open by Ram who was followed closely behind by Rom and Uni. Blanc didn't want to be interrupted but she was interested why Uni was here without either Noire or Nepgear.

"Hmm? Is there something that you needed?" Blanc asked Rom, Ram and Uni. "It's rare to see you here without Noire or Nepgear, Uni."

"Well, I'm here on urgent business on Noire and Histoire's behalf actually," explained Uni. "It's about Brian and Angel, they have decided to leave Planeptune for a few weeks and stay in the other nations."

This got Blanc interested and thus she gave her full attention to the conversation. "Visiting the other nations huh? Have they decided where to go first?"

"That's actually why I'm here, Noire thinks we can all settle it in Lastation and decide who gets to be the first host. She's already gone to Leanbox to get Vert."

"Interesting, very well then, I'll go with you back to Lastation."

Ram wasn't looking pleased however. "Are you going to leave me and Rom behind? Cause if you do that's just a stupid thing to do!"

"After what the two of you did you should be glad that you're not out in the cold without warm clothes," snarled Blanc.

"So … we can't go?" asked Rom.

"It would be better if you both stayed here … then again, I would be concerned about the state of my books should I leave you two here. Fine then, you can come along."

Rom and Ram appeared to be happy as the both beamed at Blanc and Uni. "Alright then, lets get moving," said Uni.

* * *

Black Heart flew over the city of Leanbox and gazed at the interesting mix of medieval styled building coupled together with modern technology whilst also managing to keep the environment intact, it was quite a marvel to many onlookers from the other countries of Gamindustri and Black Heart couldn't help but envy the people of Leabox for their healthy environment, largely because of the air pollution that still plagued Lastation despite the best attempts of Black Heart and her scientists, even though it had some good successes.

Gaining access into the country of Leanbox was slightly more difficult for travellers as the country was situation on a large island, yet it wasn't far off the main continent so people could still see each other from either side of the water channel if they were careful.

Black Heart saw the Leanbox Basilicom, which looked like an oversized mansion, and landed on the balcony. She would normally have taken the normal route through the front entrance but this time she wanted to get the job over and done with quickly. Much to her surprise she saw Chika sitting down on a chair, apparently asleep and looked rather distressed, even if she was sleeping. Black Heart walked over to the sleeping green haired Oracle and gently tapped her on her left shoulder.

"Mmmmm … Vert …," mumbled Chika in her sleep.

"Er … I'm not sure I want to know what she's dreaming about," Black Heart said to herself. "Guess I'll have to leave a note for Chika saying where Vert will be once I convince her to get out."

Black Heart the proceeded to open the large glass doors and enter the Basilicom. She decided to stay in her HDD form since she believed that it wouldn't take long to get Vert to come with her back to Lastation. Little did she know how troublesome it would be.

Once Black Heart ventured down the white and green hallways she finally found Vert's room and entered it cautiously as she heard the sounds of Vert yelling, it became obvious that she was playing an MMO, possibly Four Goddesses Online. When Black Heart entered the dark room she saw only one source of light, and that was coming from the various large computer screens that took up an entire corner of Vert's big room, then there was Vert who had a headset on her head and was yelling down the microphone at her team-mates.

"Take point! Take point! Get over to the southern wall and push them back! No, I can handle these scrubs by myself here, just defend the southern wall!" yelled Vert.

Black Heart sighed and shook her head, it sounded as if Blanc's temper had started to rub off on Vert. As Black Heart watched Vert yell at her team-mates she began to think to herself about the trouble that would be involved in getting Vert out of her room.

 _This is going to take a while, isn't it? Damn this, I haven't got the time for waiting around, I have to get this over and done with before I can return to signing paperwork!_

"Vert, hey Vert, can you hear me?" asked Black Heart.

"That's it, stay by the southern wall and defend it with your life! Don't let those plebs get to you!" continued Vert.

Black Heart sighed to herself, she knew that she wasn't getting anywhere with the gamer Goddess before her, and for the next few minutes she tried, and failed, to get Vert's attention by simple talk. Suddenly Vert sighed in relief and appeared to be more relaxed than before, she then turned around and noticed Black Heart.

"Hmm? Oh, hello there Noire, why are you here in HDD form?" asked Vert.

"I'm here to take you to Lastation," replied Black Heart calmly.

"But why? There isn't any reason for me to go to Lastation. Besides, I've just defended the castle with my online friends from the guild I'm in and I have to get prepared for an upcoming raid."

"Can that wait for a while? There is something that needs to be solved first."

"Fine, what is it?"

"We're going to Lastation to decide who gets to be host for Brian and Angel, Blanc is going to get there soon and so you need too as well."

"Oooooo, so they're travelling now are they? I shall certainly accompany you back to Lastation, though I'll take up some time telling Chika the news. I had originally thought that you were here because you have no friends."

"I-I do have friends for your information!" retorted Black Heart.

"Hehehehehe, there is no need to stammer about it. I'll get ready to leave, just let me deal with my team-mates first."

Vert then returned to her game and informed her team-mates that she was going to leave for a while, then she took of her headset and stood up, smiling at Black Heart.

"Let's get going," said Vert.

* * *

"Well, now that we are all here, how are we supposed to find a way for one of us to be the host?" asked Vert. "Should it be through a game? Or perhaps a round of one on one combat?"

"Preferably something non-destructive thank you very much," responded Noire with her arms crossed.

The two groups had arrived back at Lastation at the same time, defeating Uni's hopes of surpassing Noire through speed. After the usual degrading remarks towards each other, mostly between Blanc and Vert, the combined group had settled to stand in Noire's office around her desk. They were discussing about who would be the first host for Brian and Angel.

"I'm all for bashing you lot up," said Blanc, supporting Vert's second idea.

"I have no doubt about that," sighed Noire. "Normally I wouldn't mind having a match between us, but I need to get the rest of this work done."

"So that leaves out gaming until one of us falls and us fighting one another," said Vert thoughtfully. "That does not leave us with many options."

"I guess we'll have to think of something simple then," commented Uni.

"How about a race?" suggested Ram. "The first to the finish line wins."

"That sounds cool," said Rom.

"It'll take too long to decide on the specifics," responded Blanc.

"How about a roll of the dice to decide?" suggested a voice that came from the hallway.

The group looked at the source of the voice and saw Kei walking towards them with her hands in her pockets, when she got near them she stood still and nodded to them as greetings.

"Say, that isn't a bad suggestion there, Kei," said Noire.

"It's simple but effective, I like it," approved Blanc.

"I'm all for it, I just have to make sure that my luck doesn't leave me," remarked Vert.

With that settled Uni fetched a die and it was left to Noire, Blanc and Vert to see who would win. The rules were simple: Noire, Blanc and Vert had to guess which number would roll up and whoever won would become the first host, then after the week was over the previous losers would reconvene and play the game again and thus the cycle continued.

"Alright then, I say three," guessed Noire.

"Five," guessed Blanc.

"One," guessed Vert.

Kei then rolled the die across Noire's desk and everyone waited anxiously for the result. As the die crashed against Noire's computer the entire group watched as it came to a stop and rolled a … four.

"Seriously? A four?" groaned Blanc.

"Let's try again," said Vert with determination. "I choose three."

"Four," guessed Noire.

"Five," guessed Blanc.

Once again the die was rolled onto the desk and, much to their surprise, it rolled a one. Kei picked it up and rolled it once more, and several more times actually as the CPUs proved to be extremely unlucky when it came to guesses. Finally, after seven minutes of rolling the die and guessing incorrectly it became clear to Uni, Rom, Ram and Kei that Noire, Blanc and Vert were getting more than annoyed. Noire was snarling, Blanc was pulling her 'scary eye' act while Vert simply glared.

"Ugh! How hard is it to get it right?!" shouted Noire.

"If this keeps up don't blame me if the entire office is destroyed," Blanc warned Noire.

"How about one last go?" suggested Vert. "If we remain unlucky we just resort to fighting each other."

"Sounds good to me," Blanc agreed.

"I can go along with that," said Noire. "I choose five."

"Three," guessed Blanc.

"Six," guessed Vert.

The three Goddesses nodded at Kei who then rolled the die onto Noire's table one last time, everyone watched it closely. The die stopped rolling and everyone awaited the result. Kei looked at it and then turned to the CPUs with the result of their guesses.

"And looks like the winner is …"

* * *

 **A/N: And looks like it left on a cliffhanger just because I could let it. So who's going to win and become the first host for Brian and Angel? Who will be second? Who will be third? See if you can guess it. See ya later readers.**


	25. Hate and Fear

**Chapter 24: Hate and Fear  
**

* * *

 **A/N: This chapter was originally one of the chapters that I wrote ahead to see how the plot would develop, I decided to use it for the story as it gives a bit of background information (no spoilers), so that's why I updated earlier than normal, apart from that have a good day.**

* * *

On a well trodden path in the depths of north Virtua Forest a group of youngsters made their way to an unknown location, in the group were four individuals, all of whom had their quirks and were none other than IF, Nepgear, Brian and Angel. In the lead was IF who was followed closely by Nepgear, then there was Brian and Angel walking side-by-side whilst covering the rear.

"So what exactly is the quest that we have to do?" Angel asked IF.

"It's a simple 'search and recover' type quest," replied IF. "An archaeologist from Leanbox arrived recently and had sent a request for some adventurers to look for any old artefacts, apparently he heard from travellers and the locals from Haruno Village that there are some old ruins that are to the north of here."

"That's good and all, but who is this archaeologist? And what is this Haruno Village?"

"I'm not overly sure who the archaeologist is, all I know is that he comes from Leanbox and is happening to be visiting Planeptune for some artefacts that will help in his research, whatever that is. And as for Haruno Village, well, the village is rather recent as it was built a few years back by retired adventurers with permission from Neptune, with Histoire edging her to do so. It has been slow to catch up with technology but the residents seem to like it, plus it's a tad seclusive and is surrounded by beautiful scenery, which makes it a nice holiday location."

"Does that explain why the road was made of dirt and not any sort of pavement?" asked Brian as he straightened his hat.

"Yeah, but if you didn't notice it there is already a road construction occurring that will link Planeptune City and Haruno Village together," replied IF.

"Huh, I see," responded Brian.

It had been a day since the events that occurred with the Dark Captain's challenge, Plutia and Peashy had returned to their dimension with sorrow partings, especially concerning Neptune and Angel. What surprised the group was Plutia hugging Angel, then Angel had given Plutia a pat on the head, normally he would have complained about it but it was an interesting scene. Peashy had done her usual 'hug/smash' and ended up nearly breaking Brian's ribs. IF had then arrived and told them of a quest that she had found interesting, she then proceeded to get Brian and Angel to follow her outside and they travelled to the quest location, Nepgear swiftly followed once Histoire essentially kicked her out so Neptune wouldn't have any influences while she worked, hopefully at least. Compa, meanwhile, had returned to her part-time job at the hospital.

Brian and Angel knew that their time in Planeptune was coming to an end as Histoire had informed them both that the next country that they would be staying in had been chosen the day before, but the brown haired duo had decided to stay in Planeptune for one more day before they left, this would give their host the time to set everything up for them.

"Are we there yet?" asked Nepgear.

"Nearly, just a little further," replied IF.

"Did this archaeologist give any descriptions about what we are looking for?" asked Brian.

"Not really, he just mentioned that if we found anything extremely old we can take them back to the Planeptune museum, where he apparently is."

"So we don't have a clue about what these ruins actually look like?" asked Angel with a sigh.

"Afraid not."

The group continued walking along the dirt path, their destination remained to their north. As they almost arrived at their location the wind had begun to pick up, green and dying leafs blew across the path while the trees swayed with the wind and the clear morning sky had begun to be filled with small white clouds.

Brian couldn't help but feel somewhat … uneasy about the place. The group had arrived at two broken rectangular pillars with various thick trees and bushes, their bases had been covered in bushes while the broken pillars themselves laid in several pieces amongst the undergrowth, as the group walked through the supposed entrance they looked at the scene before them; it was rather dead, rocky and extremely old, the site was something out of history.

The area was small, akin to a small village, and was surrounded by large overgrown hedges coupled with old trees, in the centre of the ruined village stood the base of yet another pillar while the area around with was filled with smalls piles of semi-destroyed stone bricks, many covered in moss and thick weeds while trees looked as if they had reclaimed the land for themselves. The ruined stones suggested that all the supposed building appeared to have been in some sort of structural order, possibly houses, but as the group ventured further into the ruined village they encountered a large cliff with three supposed homes mined into the face of the cliff, open windows and doors could be seen and everything felt lifeless.

"This place feels creepy," said Nepgear, somewhat frightened.

"Yeah, this place gives me the creeps as well," remarked Angel. "It feels as if no one has been here for thousands of years, at least people anyway."

"Just take a look around, if you see any strange artefacts bring them back to the ruin's centre within half an hour," said IF. "It doesn't look as if there is anything dangerous around, but just stay on your guard."

As the group split apart and went to different parts of the ruins, Angel heading east, IF heading north and Nepgear heading south back towards the entrance, Brian was left with the small area in front of him, namely the homes mined into the cliff. As Brian glanced around him he couldn't help but feel anxious, as if there was something that was gnawing at his mind, trying to tell him that something wasn't right.

Brian looked over as a large rubble of stone that had made its home near the hollowed out cliff homes, he walked over to it and bent down to inspect it, and as he picked up a piece of stone he noticed how it was a different colour than some of the others around the place. With deep interest he picked up several more stones and investigated each and every single one of them, finally the marks clicked off something in his mind.

 _These are burn marks, and these stones are not the only ones to have burn marks, I saw several more with these burns whilst walking towards here. At least that answers one question but leaves many more unanswered. Why is there more of a burn concentration here rather than the other locations in this ruined village? And the soil here, is this … thousands of year old ash?_

Brian then decided to leave the area alone and instead investigate the hollowed cliff houses as a headache was beginning to form in his mind, as he entered the first cliff house, which was situated as the one on the left, he didn't see anything interesting, just plain stone walls in a corridor that led to three semi-large rooms, all were empty. Without finding anything Brian left the first house and entered the middle house, this too had a long corridor but instead had two rooms that were larger than the previous home, one of the rooms had a big mining shaft that would have led deep into the bowls of the earth, but it had long since been caved in. It appeared to have been a conventional mine, which would have meant that the previous home would have been a miner residence, which would also mean that the next cliff house was possibly a miner residence.

Without finding anything to collect Brian left and entered the right and final home, this one was larger in terms of a house as the main corridor led to two rooms but the corridor also led to another corridor which led to a large room that could house at least fifteen people, there were several hollowed holes in the side of the north-east wall and a doorway was next to it. Brian entered it and found himself in a small room, possibly what would have been a small bedroom or a storage room. What interested Brian was a deep cut in the wall that was near the doorway, he didn't know why but he rubbed his right index finger over the cut and a sudden feeling of anxiety fell over him. Then a huge pain enveloped in his head and he immediately rushed his hands to massage the pain away, to no avail as the Share Energy engulfed his body and he screamed in a bloodcurdling cry. Everything started to fade around him and he felt himself, as he would later describe it, pulled from existence while also staying in the same spot. He found himself staring through the eyes of another person, a much younger person and everything around him was coloured yet faded.

* * *

" _How's the situation out there?" asked a hooded man who wore a ragged grey cloak, thin linen shirt and torn weather-worn pants, he also had leather boots and a long white beard flowed from his partially concealed face. His voice indicated that he was old but also gave some sort of hint of his wisdom.  
_

 _The person he was talking to was a woman who was wearing thick leather armour with various metal castings across the chest, arms, gut and back, her pants were of a grey colour with armoured padding. Her red hair flowed down her back to her bottom of her spine while her bangs covered her forehead and ears, her eyes sparkled and crackled with electricity while her body was engulfed with electricity. She looked sad and depressed._

" _I'm afraid not, the outer defences were lost quickly in the first hour of the battle," replied the electricity wielding woman. "Many of our kin were lost, including the boy's parents."_

 _The old man sighed in displeasure. "I see, I should have convinced them to stay in the final bastion of defence instead of risking their lives to push the enemy back."_

" _Tell me, is there any hope for us? Is there a chance that we will win?"_

" _I'm afraid not. Our ancestors once foretold that our race would one day fall, I believe that time is approaching."_

" _Heh, I forgot that you were the only one who knew just about everything of our past. Just let it go, it's not as if knowing what our ancestors once knew is going to help us."_

" _That is where you are wrong. Just let me think of a plan."_

 _As the two adults talked in the large stone dining room a young boy stood behind the doorway that led into a small room that was used for storage, he wore a faded green cloak around his small body while he wore a light blue shirt and dark grey pants, he carried a sharp curved dagger in his left hand and a grieved expression was upon his face. He had just heard that his parents were dead and there was no hope of survival._

" _No, that can't be true … it just can't be true," he muttered to himself silently._

 _The young boy could hear the dim sounds of battle through the walls, despite the house being carved into the mountain range, the cries of the wounded and the dying fell into his ears as he tried to come to terms with the reality of the situation that he was now in: they were all going to die, he was going to die, his race was finally going to be wiped out. As tears fell down his face he gritted his teeth and started to carve a gash into the wall with his dagger, he didn't know why he was doing it but he needed to calm himself down. Then he heard rustling sounds sounds coming from the various blankets and a soft murmur was heard from the blanket pile, the young boy looked to his left and sighed with relief; his friend was still with him._

 _He walked over to the blankets and poked it, the blankets shifted around and a head came forth. The head belonged to a young girl with short black hair with her bangs covering the sides of her head and parts of her forehead and her eyes were blue, she was wearing a dark blue shirt with a thick black coat, she also wore brown pants that almost reached her shins, most of it was obscured by the blankets. A small necklace of pure gold with a white gem fastened in the centre hung from her neck._

" _Hmm … yes? Is something wrong?" she asked him softly. Then she noticed the tears flowing down his face and the look he was giving, it was a grieved look of despair. "Oh, sorry. I guess something did happen. What was it?"_

" _I-It's about my parents; they're dead," replied the young boy weakly. "And I heard that we won't survive."_

 _The young girl looked at him for a minute before getting out of the blankets and then hugged him tightly and quickly, he let out a yelp before succumbing to the hug and merely embraced it. She was attempting to calm him down, and it was having the desired effect. After what seemed like an eternity to the boy the young girl parted from the hug and looked at him straight in the eyes, she smiled at him in a way that he could only describe in one word: cute._

" _It will be alright eventually, I lost my parents a few years back so I know what it feels like to have people you care about pulled from your life, we're in the same boat now."_

 _The young boy couldn't help it but feel at ease around her and that smile of hers. She had always looked out for him and he would always help her, even if he failed at it. They were born in a time of war and thus they couldn't get much happiness from the world, especially since it was the inhabitants of the world who were aiming to annihilate their race, so once the two of them had met each other they had always been at each others sides._

" _Thanks, I needed that," commented the boy._

" _Heh, don't worry about it," responded the girl._

 _Just then the old hooded man walked in and smiled at the two children. "Good to see that you two are still here. Now then, I'm sure you are aware of our current situation, and no … we are not going to win this battle. However, I do have a plan."_

" _What is this plan?" asked the girl._

" _I am the only person left who can use the magic that our ancestors once used before The Schism, with that I might be able to get a few of our kin to safety, but I want to prioritise you two first, I'm sure that the rest of the village would agree with that, you two are the only children in the village after all."_

" _But where will we go?" asked the young boy. "There isn't anywhere around here where we can be safe."_

" _Who said anything about here? I said that I would get you two somewhere safe, but not here. Hark, I hear the sounds of battle dying, now will be the time to set the plan in motion. You two gather your belongings and wait by the old shrine, there shall the plan take place. I'm afraid you both may very well be the last of the Ancients once this day is out."_

 _The old man then walked off, leaving the two children behind in the storeroom to gather their belongings in haste. He took one last glance at them before making his way to the corridors and into the light of day … and a bloodied battlefield._

 _As the young boy packed a blanket into a small leather backpack he saw his friend looking uneasy as she sat on the ground, it wasn't surprising as there was a battle waiting for them outside and neither of them were looking forward to it. To ease his friend's mind he walked up to her and patted her on the head, she looked up at him and gave him her cute smile._

" _Thanks, you're sweet when you actually try," she remarked with a giggle._

" _Don't worry about it, if they try to fight us I'll fend them off for you, I have to do something to help you for once," he said as he gripped his dagger firmly._

" _I'm sure that the enemy would answer the challenge with gladness, they hate all of us."_

" _Let them hate me as long as they fear me."_

* * *

Suddenly Brian's vision became clear and he was back in his body again, yet it felt as if he was really in the same spot the entire time. He wasn't quite sure what had happened, except for one thing: it was clear to him that it was a vision of the past.

 _But why did I react like that once I touched the mark on the wall? Am I connected to this place, or is it because of my power, or perhaps both? Bah, this makes little sense to me! However, that old man in the vision said that those two young children were to be the last of the Ancients … but I thought I was the last one, so does that mean that … those two could have been … well, it's a possibility at least but I can't be certain._

As he massaged his head to ease the remnants of the headache he realised he was on his knees, panting deeply and twitching in the fingers. Everything around him was dark, cold and lifeless, with a groan he lifted himself of the ground and with one last look at the gash in the wall he walked outside. Once Brian got outside he glanced around the area, the uneasy feeling refused to leave his mind, he could swear that he could hear the sounds of the battle flowing into his ears, the cries of soldiers, the clashing of steel and sound of fire. Brian shook his head and listened again, the sounds of battle were no longer there.

Brian walked over to the village centre and found the rest of the group waiting for him, they didn't seem to have any artefacts with them as they stood around the broken base pillar. IF looked up from the ground and saw Brian approaching them.

"Hey there, Brian, did you find anything?" asked IF.

"No, and I doubt there would be anything to find," replied Brian.

As Brian entered the group circle IF couldn't help but notice that Brian had a different expression on his face, instead of his usual bored or uncaring frown he had instead a somewhat confused face mixed with uncertainty, it was clear to IF that Brian had found something that made an impact on him.

 _I'll have to ask him it later, it doesn't look like I would get an answer out of him in his state._

IF looked over at Angel and saw that he too noticed the different expression on Brian's face, yet he also didn't question Brian, instead he opted to nod at IF and remain silent.

"Well, if that's everything we better get going and report it to that archaeologist," said IF as she started to walk off.

Angel followed behind her, then Brian and Nepgear soon joined them. As the group left the ruins and made their way back onto the dirt track Nepgear looked at Brian worryingly, she had noticed the look on Brian's face and, unlike the other two, was going to ask about it.

"Hey, Brian, are you alright?" asked Nepgear.

"What do you mean?" responded Brian without taking his eyes off the area in front of him.

"Well, you have been looking uneasy ever since we regrouped, is something bothering you?"

"No, I'm fine. Really, I am alright."

Nepgear didn't buy the explanation but chose not to ask more about it, she had learned from her friends that it wasn't a good idea to poke in Brian's business.

* * *

"Hmm, it's a pity that there wasn't anything there, but at least we now know that it isn't filled with monsters," said a middle-aged man.

The middle-aged man wore a light brown collared shirt with short sleeves and brown coloured buttons, a top pocket was located around his left breast, he also wore dim black pants and a white leather belt was strapped around his waist, he had steel-cap black boots on and had short blonde hair with a small blonde beard. He was just taller than Nepgear and he wasn't thin nor large. He rubbed his glasses clean and put them back on his face.

He and the group were in the Planeptune Museum, it wasn't a large building and it didn't have much on display as there wasn't much to find in the wilderness of Planeptune, however, there were several glass cabinets that contained various small items that dated from the time of Tari, there were even some from further back in history including a small wooden statue of a person kneeling to an armoured looking priest with a mask. The walls were white and rather dull, the room that they was around the main entrance.

"I was surprised about that actually, Virtua Forest is usually teeming with monsters but it made no sense as to why there were none there," commented IF.

"It doesn't matter, it just means it is safe for people. Now then, your reward."

The middle-aged man, evidently the archaeologist, rummaged around through his backpack and took out a small purse of credits. He handed it over to IF as soon as he found it.

"There you are, 600 credits," said the archaeologist.

"Well, it ain't much but at least the job's done," remarked Angel. "So what are you going to do now?"

"I'm going to gather a team of like-minded archaeologists, head up to the ruins and start excavating it. Who knows, maybe we'll find something," replied the archaeologist. He looked rather happy about that prospect.

"There wouldn't be a point on going up there, all you lot will find there will be ash and burnt stones," said Brian. He then turned away and began to make his exit.

"What do you mean by that, young man?" asked the archaeologist. "What makes you think that?"

"Trust me, all you will find up there is nothing but a bygone era of pain, suffering and death, just thought I'd let you know. Now then, I'll be taking my leave."

"You sure you want to face the wrath of the people out there by yourself?" asked Angel. "They hate you, if you have forgotten."

Brian stopped as he heard those words, for some reason the memory of the vision popped into his mind, the words of the young boy filled his thoughts. Suddenly he turned his head around towards the group, his eyes flaring blue with Share Energy.

"Let them hate me as long as they fear me."

He then continued to walk out of the museum, leaving the rest of the group in silence. The archaeologist looked at Brian with keen interest, as if he knew that there was something going on in the young man's mind or perhaps guessing what Brian was, meanwhile Nepgear looked concerned as IF sighed and Angel merely did nothing except putting his hands in his pockets.

"Brian …," mumbled Nepgear. "Well, I should head back to the Basilicom and see how Neptune is, call me if you need anything."

IF nodded and Nepgear walked out of the museum, IF could tell that Nepgear was concerned about Brian, in fact they all were. She heard Angel let out a deep sigh next to her.

"He can be an idiot at times, I suppose I'll go after him and make sure no one tries anything against him."

"Alright then, good luck. I'll head back to the Guild for now, take care."

Angel nodded and walked out, followed by IF. The archaeologist watched as the group departed with interest, he couldn't help but feel intrigued about Brian and that power of his.

"Now then, where did I leave that notebook of mine?"


	26. New Faces, Old Memories

**Chapter 25: New Faces, Old Memories**

Things could have been worse for the purple sisters of Planeptune, a lot worse. They had been up against the other Goddesses during the Console War, the various species of monsters throughout Gamindustri, an 'old hag' who attempted to kill them, the rise of Eden, a mad CPU that was once the Goddess of a bygone nation and now a few warlords attempting to steal Share Energy for an unknown sinister purpose. Compared to all that what they were now dealing with seemed like a holiday, an annoying holiday though.

As the Planeptunian Goddesses sat on the couch and as Histoire looked depressed whilst floating by the doorway a young blonde girl - who was wearing a light pink dress with pinkish-white ruffles on the neck, chest and sleeves, also included were a magenta bow and a skull in the centre of the skirt, she also wore pink shoes and each had a magenta bow on them - was standing in front of the two Goddesses with a microphone and two strangely clad people stood behind her with cameras, the girl was trying to get information out of them whilst attempting to degrade their reputations. The subject: Brian … sort of.

"He has harmed the lives of many innocent little children, he should not be in the care of the so-called Goddesses of Planeptune, especially ones that are little girls," informed the girl.

"Hey, only little girls call others little girls, missy!" retorted Neptune who was getting rather pissed off.

"How dare you call me a little girl! If anyone around here is the little girl it's you!"

"Nepu! You're the one who's complaining about it, little girl!"

This sort of bickering kept the talking to merely a backlash between the pudding obsessed Goddess and the little blonde girl who may be older than she actually looked. Nepgear looked over at Histoire, who was still unsure about what to do.

"Um, Histoire, why is she here?" asked Nepgear.

"I don't really know, all she said was that she needed to let the world know about the immorality of letting little girls be CPUs while also saying something about protecting the little children from whom I can guess is Brian," replied Histoire. "Then she barged her way up here with those two strange people and, well, this happened."

"Huh, I see. Who is she again?"

"I think she said her name was Abnes, or something similar to that."

The bickering got louder as Neptune and Abnes continued to call each other little girls, suddenly Abnes screamed in frustration.

"I AM NOT A LITTLE GIRL!" screamed Abnes.

"Yikes! Someone is getting angry," remarked Neptune. "Calm down would ya?"

Abnes recovered her composure swiftly before clearing her throat with a cough. She then looked back at Neptune and Nepgear with a determined look on her face.

"Now then, tell me, CPUs, who is this young man that you have kept around here? More importantly, where is he?" demanded Abnes.

"Whaa? You want to meet Brian, or is it Angel? Well it ain't happening, little girl, both ain't here," replied Neptune casually.

"Grrr … I said I'm not a little girl! And what do you mean they aren't here?"

"Like I said they ain't here, they're out and about doing something."

Abnes was getting frustrated, she thought that the guy who had caused the destruction the day before was around the Basilicom somewhere, and she wanted to expose him for everyone to see. Her goal: prove that little girls should not be CPUs, manage the safety of little children and prove that the destructive man is a danger to the country and to all of the young children. By using the man she assumed that everyone would begin to see how misguided the Goddesses were.

"Well where was his last known location? I have to have an interview with him," stated Abnes.

"Wait … I know what you're gonna do. You're gonna have an argument about who is the real little girl around here, aren't you!?" cried Neptune.

Histoire sighed and shook her head in disappointment after hearing Neptune say that, Nepgear looked at Abnes with a confused face.

"Is that true?" Nepgear asked.

"NO!" yelled Abnes. "I'm getting annoyed with this … tell me where you last saw them? And why is there two guys? I thought there was only one."

"There's two because a friend of mine appeared a few days ago, and I suppose you're looking for me," said a voice from the doorway.

Histoire turned around and jumped back in fright, there standing by the doorway were Brian and Angel, both had a threatening frown and it was directed towards Abnes and her two cameramen. What surprised Histoire, Neptune and Nepgear was the different attire that Angel had, instead of his usual clothes he now had a pitch black coat that reached to his hips, a white shirt and dim white cargo pants, he kept the same shoes however.

"Tell me," began Brian as he stepped through the doorway. "Why do you want to interview me?"

"To prove that you're a threat to all little children out in the world," replied Abnes, who was pleased that her main target had showed up.

"Hmm, I see. Well, let me tell you that I am not a threat to anyone unless they get in my way … or happen to be annoying, and you are one those annoying people."

Abnes then knew that she had gotten more then she had bargained for, now she had an annoyed young man staring down at her, his companion wasn't altogether too pleased with her as well as far as she could see.

"W-W-Well t-then, let's get this over and done with," stuttered Abnes. She didn't like the look that Brian's friend was giving her, it looked rather … sadistic, it gave her the shivers.

"Yes, getting this done with quickly. Well then," murmured Brian as he looked at the camera. "I am not a threat to Planeptune, the Dark Captains are, you do best to remember that for I am the Shadow Walker and you won't be seeing me for a while."

With that said he swiftly unsheathed a throwing knife, engulfed it with Share Energy and quickly threw it at the camera, the glass cracked and Abnes cried out with fright along with her camera crew. Brian looked at them and they saw the Share Energy in his eyes, a grin formed on his face as the camera was dropped.

"Go, leave now, or else," warned Brian.

Abnes was quick to answer the warning by running into the hallway with her camera crew, she looked back at them and yelled, "This isn't over, Shadow Walker!" Angel watched them get into the elevator and they descended down to the ground level. Histoire looked at Brian in disapproval.

"There could have been another way to resolve that issue," stated Histoire. "Using threats and weapons like that won't get you anywhere."

Brian calmed down and looked at Histoire with his usual frown. "Yeah, I know, I've just got a few things going on, that's all."

"Well who cares, she was getting annoying anyway," said Neptune. "C'mon, Bri-Bri and Angie, we gotta eat pudding and play games all day!"

"Neptune, I don't believe that is a good idea, you barely got any work done at all," commented Histoire, which got a giggle out of Nepgear.

"Hey, this isn't for me, it's for our Ancient resident and our sadistic male over here, they're leaving tomorrow."

"Oh yeah, forgot about that," remarked Angel. "So where are we heading to first?"

"They will show up in the morning to take you. In the meantime, I suppose you can all rest easy, yes Neptune, that includes you as well, consider yourself lucky," replied Histoire.

"Sweet! Come on guys, we're gonna play games and eat pudding till the sun sets," exclaimed Neptune happily.

Nepgear beamed at the group and hurried to the kitchen to fetch the pudding, Angel followed Neptune to the TV and readied himself for a long day of gaming, Brian, however, stood near Histoire and sighed.

"Hey, Histoire, can I ask for a favour?" he asked the tome.

"You may, what is it it?"

"You are practically the living tome of Gamindustri, correct? You have just about all recorded history of the past within that tome?"

"Yes, I do, at least I believe so. Was there something that you needed?"

"Well, if it isn't too much trouble, can you do some more research into the Ancients for me? Any sources that refer to them and any history records will do."

"I'll attempt to get as much information as I possibly can, it shouldn't take more than three days. Is there something wrong?"

"Not really, I just needed to put my mind at rest, that's all."

Histoire looked dubiously at him, she knew that he was hiding something from them, but instead of asking him about it she thought it wiser to comply with his request and do some research. Histoire then nodded at Brian before leaving the room and headed down to her office to begin her research.

As Brian stood still in the same spot as before he looked down at the broken camera and saw his knife sticking out of the glass, he bent down on one knee and pulled the knife out of the camera with a grunt, after placing it back into his throwing knife belt he looked over at Angel and Neptune who were playing some sort of fighting game, it looked as if Angel was in the lead, much to Neptune's displeasure.

"Aw c'mon! I call cheat!" cried Neptune as she pointed an accusing finger at Angel.

"No, I just happen to be more skilled than you," retorted Angel with an uncaring expression.

"Bah! That's mean! Though I must say, you look snazzy in that new outfit of yours, Angie."

"Thanks, I personally chose it myself. It wasn't too expensive fortunately."

Brian smirked at the two before sitting down on a chair and began to daydream, ignoring everything that was occurring around him. In his thoughts he kept coming back to the vision, for some reason it ached his heart, then it dissolved into thin air and he was looking at his foster parents who had disheartened looks on their faces as they stared at a young boy with a sad face, then it changed into an image of the foster father and the young Brian having an argument, Brian could swear that he could hear the sounds of his foster father's enraged tone. As the scene started to disappear he felt a slight nudge and he awoke to find Nepgear looking over him with a worried expression.

"Ergh … what is it Nepgear?" asked Brian in a slightly droopy way.

"Well, you were murmuring about something and then you started to shift around, are you alright?"

"I'm fine, really Nepgear, there isn't anything for you to worry about."

"Brian … I know that there is something bothering you, you're not giving us the usual facial expressions plus you've been acting differently since we got back from the ruins. Please, tell me what's wrong, maybe I can help with it."

"I told you already, there isn't anything wrong with my behaviour. Besides, if there was something wrong you wouldn't be able to help."

"Goodness, I'm sorry that I asked."

"Don't be sorry, but just remember this: I don't like it when people are worried about me."

"Ok then, if you insist. By the way, what happened to you after you left the museum? Did you get into any trouble?"

"Quite the opposite in fact, well kinda anyway. Everyone kept their distance and several others wouldn't even dare look at me, guess I was right after all; they do hate and fear me at the same time. After Angel caught up with me he decided to get some new clothes, then we came back here and you know the rest."

"At least nothing happened. Hmm, you look hungry, would you like a pudding?"

"If there happens to be a spare one, sure, you might as well give Angel and Neptune one as well cause that big sis of yours is probably expecting one already."

"Yeah, you're right. I'll see if we have any left."

"Are you suggesting that all the pudding that had been bought the day before could have been reduced to nothing?"

"Well, big sis is a heavy eater when it comes to pudding, so it is a possibility."

Nepgear then walked over to the fridge and peered in, she sighed in relief and reached into the cold air of the fridge, pulling out four puddings, Nepgear looked relieved that there were still a few puddings left, but Brian didn't want to guess how many were left. Nepgear then walked up to Brian and gave him a pudding, which he took gladly.

"Thanks Nepgear," Brian thanked her with a nod.

Nepgear beamed a bright smile back at him before walking over to the two addicted gamers, well, addicted was a strong word as Brian had come to sense that Vert was the game addict of Gamindustri. After grabbing a spoon he began to dig into his dish, the taste of the pudding left a good feeling as it went down to his stomach. Now he hoped that he wouldn't become addicted to it as Neptune had and round up as a fat guy. Even as he ate away at his chocolate pudding he could not help but keep thinking about the vision from earlier in the day.

 _Who was she? And who was the boy that I was seeing everything through? So many questions and no information to gather the answers._

* * *

"Who does he think he is?! Damn that Shadow Walker, if that even is his real name!" cursed Abnes as she and her camera crew rested in a surprisingly clean alleyway.

Abnes and her camera crew had fled the Basilicom and continued to run until Abnes complained about how tired she was getting just from running, they then turned a corner and arrived in an alleyway to recover their breath. Abnes fell to the cold stony ground and panted deeply for air, her two companions followed suite, none of them had expected to be kicked out of the Basilicom by an angry young man with extraordinary powers. The question that was on Abnes' mind was what to do next.

As the crew recollected their thoughts Abnes looked up at the sky and watched as a small flock of birds flew through the air, the sky was bright and few clouds were in site, altogether it was quite a good day and it would have been for Abnes if it hadn't been for her target, the Shadow Walker.

"And just when things were going on my side," sighed Abnes. "Now what am I supposed to do? But I do know one thing … this Shadow Walker must fall!"

"You speak of the Shadow Walker, do you?" asked a sinister voice from the shadows.

Abnes and her crew jumped from fright as they heard the voice, it seemed to come from further down the alleyway that led to another street, as Abnes looked at the location of the voice she saw movement coming from the most dense part of the shadow which was around several trash cans, then dark clothed legs came forth and Abnes, along with her crew, were left staring at a black hooded man with a black cloak, a leather belt filled with knives, a ragged black cloth covered the man's armour, the man had a menacing face that was adorned with a few scars that stretched from his chin to his left eye and his right cheek to his forehead. Dark yellow eyes were seen from under his hood and a longsword was strapped to his back.

"W-W-Who are you?!" cried Abnes.

"I'm, well, lets just say that I am an enemy of the Shadow Walker. As for my name, you can call me Agandur's Right Hand, leader of the Dark Captains," replied the menacing man.

"Dark Captains … wait, that Shadow Walker said something about you lot! He said that you're not to be trusted."

"Of course he would say that, but have we done anything to this city? Have we done anything to the citizens of this country? Have we done anything that has harmed anyone at all?"

"I guess not … but what exactly are you doing here?"

"Just looking for some allies to further the cause, we Dark Captains cannot do it alone, there are too few of us to handle everything."

"Cause? What cause?"

Abnes didn't fully trust the strange man before her and she sensed that he wasn't the most nicest of people, but since he was an enemy of the Shadow Walker she decided to inquire about this 'cause' that he spoke of. Who knows, maybe their goals were similar and perhaps they could both ally with each other until there was no need for them to work together.

"Well I suppose I can let you in with some of the details. There are four of us, the Dark Captains, and we are here on this world to bring about unity under a single banner."

It wasn't the complete truth, yet it wasn't a complete lie either as the Dark Captains were planning to bring their master into Gamindustri and let chaos assume the place of order, then the world would be covered in an eternal shadow. Agandur's Right Hand didn't want to spill all of the details to the girl before him, but he did want to gain allies that could prove useful, and from the look of the peculiar group in front of him he may have just found what he was looking for. His master, the Dark Lord, had once said; 'Take advantage of any given situation and reap the rewards'.

"And how would you accomplish such a feat? Will the children of this world be free from bad influences that plague them today?"

Agandur's Right Hand wasn't sure what she was on about, but quickly decided to play along with it by agreeing with her question.

"Yes, of course the children will have everything that they should have, it is only natural after all that they should have all the fun in life. And as for making the cause come to reality, well, there will be a way. I sense that you want to help, at least for a time?"

"Only if the children's needs are answered."

"Very well then, we'll have to exchange information through … what do they call it … phones, that's it, phones. If you don't have one then just go down south of Planeptune until you find an abandoned farmhouse with a ten pointed star, that is most likely where I'll be if you have information, or just want some help. By the way, you didn't say your name, what is it?"

"It's Abnes. So, an abandoned farmhouse then, shouldn't be too hard to find, but what am I going to do in the meantime?"

"Do what you do best. Now, I'll be taking my leave."

Agandur's Right Hand then pulled out a crowbar and bent down to a sewer opening, he then proceeded to wrench the lid open and began to descend into the darkness below, this utterly shocked Abnes who watched as her new 'boss' started to climb down.

"Why are you using the sewers?!" asked Abnes in a serious and shocked tone.

"I'm using to not cause suspicion of course. Imagine what would happen if I casually walk down the street looking like this, I would be held with suspicion, plus I'm not on friendly terms with the resident Goddesses so I want to remain hidden. Now, if you're done asking questions do you mind if you put the lid back on after I'm gone?"

"Uh, sure."

The lid was screwed on tight by Abnes and her camera crew, all were unsure about what to do next. Abnes looked over at her crew and a determined expression appeared on her face.

"Alright then, let's return to base and plan out what we're going to use as evidence against the Shadow Walker and the CPUs. We will taste victory!"

Meanwhile in the sewers the Right Hand was walking along the pavement that was positioned right next to the sewer water, it wasn't a pleasant area to walk down and the stench was next to awful, but Agandur's Right Hand made no complaint about it, instead he continued to trod down his chosen path that led to the outskirts of the city. So far he had been successful with recruiting new allies, but process was slow as there were not many people who would deny their faith towards the Goddesses, not to mention the lack of people who were openly working against the CPUs, in fact he had been lucky to run into Abnes.

"Lets hope that she is useful, for the sake of the Dark Lord's return," mumbled the Right Hand.

Out of all the Dark Captains he was the one who was most engaged with bringing his master back into the world of the living, the second was obviously Severia the Stoic. Though it would be a hard process to transfer the Dark Lord's spirit from one dimension to another the Right Hand had it planned out, and he needed all the Share Energy he could get his hands on. As he walked Agandur's Right Hand couldn't help but remember when he first entered the service of the Dark Lord, it was a time he would never forget.

* * *

" _Go on, get out of here! Go away!" yelled a random person at a young man. "Why can't you just leave and die?!"_

 _The young lad turned around and stared at the abusive person, his eyes fixed onto the other person's eyes and he then started to walk up to him, causing the abusive man to back off and start walking backwards towards a wooden house that was situated next to several other wooden houses and a stone church._

 _The young man wore a black cloak that covered most of his thick leather armour that covered his chest, arms and legs, his boots were black as was his gloves, messy red hair adorned his head and dark yellow eyes seemed to pierce people's souls, a longsword was strapped to his back and an unfriendly frown was upon his face. He had no name and was thus called 'The Nameless One', at roughly around the age of eighteen he had made a career as the youngest mercenary in the land, but this fame came at a price; he was hated across the Empire for the jobs that he took, these were normally murder and thievery, not to mention his open hatred for the Imperial government._

" _Leave and die? Why would anyone want that? Just imagine who would be around to openly defy the government, not to mention who would take those dangerous jobs that end up with people drowning in a pool of their own blood," retorted the Nameless One._

 _The man realised he had made a horrible mistake and retreated into the wooden house, barricading himself in with various objects. The Nameless One stared at the closed door without interest as the rest of the citizens of the small town made their escape to their homes and the church._

" _Hmm, I could let him live, yet again I could make an example of him," mumbled the Nameless One._

 _He raised his left hand and a rune appeared, then he uttered one word, " **Firebolt** ", suddenly a bolt of fire came from the rune and flew into the wooden house, it quickly caught on fire and as the flames burnt the house to the ground the screams of the man filled the mid-afternoon air, the Nameless One swiftly walked away from the commotion he had caused and left the town, leaving a destroyed house and one dead man behind._

 _The Nameless One was not only good at using a sword, he was also adept at using fire and lightning magic, where he learnt it from was unknown. At any rate he continued on his journey to the Northern Wastelands, he had heard rumours from travellers that something or someone was in the north and was calling forth all manner of unsavoury people and creatures to the Wastelands, it was only a rumour but an interesting one and the Nameless One was up for an adventure to see if it was true._

 _After spending countless weeks travelling from the Imperial north border to the various barbarian tribes that occupied the territory between the Empire and the Wastelands the Nameless One finally arrived at the edge of the mountain range that covered parts of the landscape, beyond that was the Northern Wastelands, it was called that because it was a wasteland of ash, smoke and dust, yet it was also rumoured that there was vegetation up there. The Nameless One then spent a further few days in searching for an easy way across the mountains, then on the third day of his search he encountered something that he hadn't been expecting; an iron walled fortress occupying a passage into the Wastelands. The fortress had high walls and stretched for several miles, a large tower occupied the background behind the walls and the gate was spiked with various iron spikes. When he emerged from the loosely spread trees and approached the fortress he was greeted by guards dressed in spiked and scaled armour, one had an iron crest across his helmet, it looked as if he was the captain._

" _Halt! Who goes there?" demanded the captain._

" _Just an adventurer, I wasn't expecting civilisation up here," replied the Nameless One._

" _We get that a lot up here, but what do you want?"_

" _I don't know yet, perhaps if I am granted access I will find out."_

" _You look like trouble, but then again most of the people that come here do cause trouble, perhaps …"_

" _Let him through, I sense that he will be of use," spoke a new voice that came from behind the captain._

 _The captain was quick to bow at the new figure before commanding the gate to be opened. The mysterious figure left and as the Nameless One entered the courtyard, which wasn't much to look at, he was greeted by the mysterious figure. It appeared to be a man and he wore grey metal plate armour, black robes flowed from the shoulders and the back neck and covered several parts of the armour, he carried a face-covered metal helmet that was adorned with a spiked iron crown. The man had a clean face, red eyes and shoulder length silver-coloured hair, he appeared to be around 6 ft 5._

" _Er … who are you?" asked the Nameless One._

" _I am the lord of the Wastelands as well as this fortress, my name is Agandur the Dark Lord," replied the man. "What brings you to my domain?"_

" _I'm not sure, I was originally here to investigate the place, now I don't know what to do."_

" _Hmm, I sense that you're capable of fighting just about anything, whether it is with the sword or the hand of magic, you may just be the person I am looking for, Nameless One."_

" _What do you mean? And how do you know me?"_

" _I have walked many paths in the Empire and have heard of you, not to mention many others whom I hope will come here, I was originally a wizard of the Emperor's court. Now, how would you like to become my apprentice? I could have use of someone with your talents."_

" _Well, I can't refuse such an offer like that, I accept."_

" _Good. Well then, let's get your training under way, who knows, you could very well end up as my Right Hand."_

" _I will strive to achieve that and become the Right Hand of Agandur!"_

" _I like that spirit of yours, perhaps you will accomplish that one day."_

* * *

"Heh, it took years to achieve what I had boasted and I became his Right Hand, and now look at the mess we're in," mumbled the Right Hand. "Master, I swear that you will be brought back and, despite being in another dimension, we will bring this world under your darkness."

He then spotted an exit that led straight to the outskirts of the southern district of Planeptune City, as he neared the rusted ladder that led to the exit above him he had one thing in mind: search for new allies, and he had heard of an interesting prospect to the east of Planeptune City where a Dark Follower had reported of a strange person who worked on a farm but had incredible power.

 _Lets hope that the damn follower was correct, I need all the allies I can muster around here. I pray to the Dark Lord that the others are successful in finding allies as well._

* * *

 **A/N: This is one of the longest chapters that I have ever typed up, about 5100 words in total! I've also started to create back-stories for the villains as they just need some attention, if you want information about their home dimension then feel free to ask. Have a good day readers.**

 **PS: For some reason I can't read new reviews, an example of this is when I found that there were 11 reviews for this story yet I could only see 10, this is the same for other stories that I read. I don't know if this is a glitch with my computer, my internet or with the website so I apologise if I can't read any new reviews, pm me instead if you have questions or ideas.**


	27. To the Next Location!

**Chapter 26: To the Next Location!**

It was a quite night for Brian, despite Neptune and Angel playing games all night long, the usual groans of defeat and the joyous cries of victory resonated through the night as Brian slept and Nepgear attempted to sleep, without much luck until the two gamers fell silent due to tiredness, well, in Neptune's case at least. When Brian finally awoke he could here slight groans coming from the living room, it was a signal to the Ancient that the purple Goddess and the masochistic sadist were awake. With a small groan he got out of bed and changed into his normal attire, but as he gazed upon his topless self in the mirror he rubbed the scar over the left side of his chest, he grimaced as he remembered the pain he went through as the near fatal blow was given to him over a week and a half ago. As he put on his collared shirt and his trench coat there was a knock on the door.

"Coming," responded Brian as he walked to the door. He opened it to see Angel, who looked like the loss of sleep hadn't effected him, this was to be expected from him as Brian had found out during their years at school.

"What is it?" asked Brian.

"Just seeing of you were up, Histoire was getting all of us up and about, for some reason there's a visitor waiting for us," replied Angel.

"Huh. What do they look like?"

"You know I'm not good at describing, besides, I've only caught a quick glance at her before I came down here. It would be better if you saw for yourself."

"Alright, fine, you win."

Brian closed his bedroom door and walked down the light purple hallways of the Basilicom towards the living room alongside Angel. For anyone who was first visiting the Basilicom and its upper levels it was easy to get lost, Brian had remembered when he got lost the first time around, fortunately he quickly remembered thanks to Histoire, Angel got lost a few times and in the end had to draw a map so he couldn't get lost.

One Brian and Angel had arrived in the living room they were greeted by a surprising sight; the brown haired duo were looking at Neptune rolling around on the ground along with … Blanc? The two young men stared intensely at the scene in front of them, Brian with a raised eyebrow while Angel looked uncaring about it but Brian noticed that he would glance at their direction whenever he got the chance.

"Rolly rolly rolly," sang Neptune. "C'mon Blanny, you're falling behind!"

"Ugh … rolly rolly rolly," mumbled Blanc quietly. "Hmm, this is kinda relaxing."

"I know right? People should do this more often. Rolly rolly …"

Brian sat down on a chair and shook his head at the sight of the two Goddesses rolling around on the carpet, it looked rather childish to him. It made sense that Neptune would do it but why would Blanc submit to childlike behaviour and roll around? The two of them had failed to see Brian and Angel enter the room so Brian knew that it would become awkward very soon when they realise that there are others around.

"Rolly rolly … huh?"

Neptune bumped into Angel's legs and looked up to see the face of the sadistic male looking down at her, unamused and surprised that she hadn't noticed him beforehand.

"Having fun there, Neptune?" asked Angel.

"Huh? What're doing standing there? Let me get back to rolling."

"Neptune? What's going …" Blanc was prepared to ask before she looked up and saw Angel's face and Brian's amused expression.

"Having a good time down there, Blanny?" asked Brian with a smirk.

As Brian had predicted it became awkward quickly, especially for Blanc who wasn't used to rolling around on the ground. She quickly got herself off the ground and attempted to act natural, as if nothing happened at all. Blanc cleared her throat before speaking as Neptune got up from her rolling session.

"G-Good morning, Brian," Blanc greeted the last Ancient. Brian returned the greeting with a nod.

"Morning to you as well. Why are you here, apart from rolling on the ground with Neptune?" asked Brian.

"Can we please forget about that?" Blanc didn't look amused as she asked Brian to forget about the memory of her rolling around.

"Maybe, then again maybe not, it'll have to depend whether my brain is having a troublesome time with processing it. Now I'll ask again, why are you here?"

"I am you and Angel's host for a week. I thought Histoire was to have told you."

"She didn't tell us, why bother spoiling the surprise when it'll come to you eventually? Though I'm glad that you're going to be our first host, I really want to take a look at your library."

"I'm happy to hear that, though I wonder how your friend is going to adapt to Lowee and my little sisters. Would he be able to handle it?"

"He is quite durable yet not adaptable, plus I must warn you; he's a sadist so I wouldn't provoke him if I were you."

Blanc nodded thoughtfully at the remark as Brian got up from his chair and entered the kitchen, he opened several cupboards and the book-loving Goddesses watched as her peculiar friend – she hoped he was her friend anyway – as he pulled out a bowl and some cereal before opening the fridge for the milk, he then proceeded to make his breakfast carefully.

"Excuse me, Brian, may I ask you a question?" Blanc asked the busy lad.

"Yeah, fire away," replied Brian without taking his eyes of the pouring milk.

"Do you consider the two of us friends?"

"Hmmm … I suppose so, out of the entire group of Goddesses that I've encountered you're the one whom I can relate to the most."

Blanc chuckled as she heard the response, causing Brian to look up from his bowl and stare at her face with a confused look. "Eh? Did I say something funny? I don't usually do that, on purpose anyway."

"No, no it's alright, but I am glad that we're friends, plus I am glad that you can relate to me on certain issues. Oh, another question, can I borrow your book again please? I didn't read the last few chapters."

"Sure, I'll go get it, make sure that Neptune doesn't sabotage my cereal with her pudding before stealing it."

"Very well then." Blanc then smiled at him, catching him of guard as he could feel his own heartbeat thumbing away in his chest. To him the smile she gave him was cute, adorable even. But there was something about it that sent his mind racing into overdrive, there was just something that made Brian uneasy about the cute, adorable smile of Blanc's.

 _It's too similar, too similar to_ her _smile, the one when she gave that smile of hers to comfort the boy back in last days of the Ancients. It's … unsettling that Blanc has the same smile as the young girl did._

"Hmm? Is something wrong, Brian?" asked Blanc.

"N-No, nothing at all. I'll get you the book," replied Brian with a stammer. He didn't realise it but he was slightly blushing.

Once Brian left the kitchen and entered the hallway to return to his room Neptune and Angel, who were having a conversation about the game they were playing the previous night and who actually won (it was Angel as a matter of fact), then turned to watch the scene involving Brian and Blanc. Neptune put on her troll face as she saw Brian blush while Angel raised an eyebrow at what he saw, he knew that Brian blushed rarely if at all. When Blanc noticed the two of them being quite she turned around and looked at them.

"You two are being awfully quite, did you finally run out of things to talk about?" asked Blanc without a care in the world.

"Nah, we were just watching the two of you bond, that's all," replied Neptune smugly.

"What do you mean by that?"

"Brian blushed, that is a very rare thing for him to do," remarked Angel. "What exactly did you do?"

"Huh? He blushed? I never thought he was the type of person do to that. All I did was confirm that we are friends before smiling at him."

"Hmmm … I've got an idea; smile at us," said Angel as he crossed his arms.

"Oooooooh, we get to see Blanc smile for us, good thinking Angie," commented Neptune.

"I don't do anything on command, and besides, you two don't deserve a smile from me," retorted Blanc, who was getting annoyed. "But why do you want to see me smile?"

"So we can understand what was going through Brian's head, that's all," responded Angel.

"Not going to happen, I smile when I'm happy, not on command. What am I, a dog?"

"Sheesh, no need to be rude you know. Take a chill pill or whatever," mumbled Neptune disappointedly.

"I don't need a damn chill pill!" yelled Blanc, she looked incredibly pissed off and ready to fight Neptune.

Such was the commotion when Brian returned with his book, it didn't surprise him that Blanc was ready to beat up Neptune but since he wanted to avoid any messy commotions while eating breakfast he quickly decided to calm the situation down. He calmly walked up to Blanc and presented to her his book, hoping that it would at least calm her down a notch.

"Got it for ya," said Brian as he held the book with one hand near her face.

"Oh, thank you," replied Blanc as she calmed down and took hold of the book before retreating to a chair, sitting down on it and opened the book to where she had last left off.

Brian took hold of his cereal bowl and started to eat as he sat down on the couch, ignoring everyone else around him as he continued to eat his breakfast in peace. As Angel glanced at Brian devouring his breakfast it quickly dawned on him that he hadn't had anything to eat since he got back to the Basilicom the previous day, and that had only been a pudding and eight mugs of coffee, it became clear to Neptune, Nepgear and everyone else who happened to be near the sadistic male that he had an addiction to coffee, and it didn't seem to have an effect on him. Deciding to go and eat something he marched into the kitchen and scavenged the fridge for anything edible, much to his surprise as he scavenged through the near empty fridge he came across a blueberry muffin, in fact there were three in total and they seemed to be in pristine condition.

After finding them Angel quickly took them out of the fridge and began to devour them on the spot, he could not hide is excitement as he ate every last piece of the muffins, it could be said that he had an obsession with blueberry muffins as well as coffee though no one, not even Brian, knew why.

It was at this moment when Nepgear and Histoire entered the living room, Nepgear seemed to be carrying piles of paperwork and headed straight towards Neptune, but when the pudding obsessed Goddess looked at the large pile of work she immediately looked up at it with fright, Nepgear didn't look too happy about giving her older sister all the paperwork but she couldn't refuse an order from Histoire, no one should ever do that.

"I'm sorry, Neptune, but this has to be done," apologised Nepgear.

"But I don't wanna! Work is unhygienic!" complained Neptune loudly as she pushed the paperwork away from her.

"Neptune …" grumbled Histoire. "You will be doing this paperwork today or else!"

"Seriously? It's too early in the morning for any type of work."

"Neptune, it's 10:24 AM," Nepgear informed her older sister.

"Huh? That isn't early? But I thought it was early …" Neptune mumbled to herself.

Brian and Angel shook their heads for the same reason; disbelief at Neptune. It didn't take long for Brian to finish the rest of his cereal before looking back at the scene in front of him; there was Neptune being forced into signing paperwork by Histoire, Nepgear was in the background looking guilty, Angel had finished devouring his muffins before rummaging through the cupboards to make his morning coffee, finally there was Blanc who looked at peace with herself as she read the last few chapters of Brian's history book.

"Hey, Histoire, when will me and Angel be leaving today?" Brian asked Histoire.

"This morning, Blanc came earlier than I was expecting so I estimate that you and Angel would be leaving at around 10:40 or 11:00," replied Histoire.

"I'll get prepared. Hey, Angel, get your stuff packed and ready to go."

"Wait till I get my coffee ready," responded Angel without taking his eyes off the coffee machine.

"Fine then, just don't take too long. I know what you're like with coffee."

"Yeah yeah, just do what you gotta do."

Brian stood up, took his bowl to the kitchen sink and then walked out of the living room towards his room to gather his belongings, which numbered only a few and could be carried in his trench coat, so it wouldn't take long to pack up and get ready for Lowee, but something was on his mind as he gathered his low number of possessions.

 _How is Blanc going to get me and Angel to Lowee? Is she going to carry the two of us over there? Wouldn't that be tiring for her to do that? Guess I'll just find out._

* * *

"Alright, you guys ready?" White Heart asked the brown haired duo.

The two young men stood on the balcony along with Neptune, Nepgear and Histoire. The air was cold but there was little wind in the air, there were a few clouds floating about and overall felt like a good day, so far at least. IF and Compa were not there as they both had jobs to go to, but they did send a message to Nepgear to tell the young men that they said good bye.

"Just let me drink this mug of coffee first," replied Angel. He then continued to drink what was left of his fith mug of coffee.

"How are you able to drink so much coffee and yet remain unaffected by it?" asked an amazed Histoire.

"I just can," responded Angel as he tilted his head back and the last few drops of the coffee entered his mouth, he swallowed it and a satisfied sigh of relief escaped his throat, "That was delicious, can I make one more before leaving?"

"No, we're leaving now," said Brian. "Wait till we get to Lowee and see what they've got."

"Ugh, fine."

"'bout time. Now then, hold still," White Heart commanded.

The two of them stood still next to each other as White Heart walked up behind them and took hold of them by putting one arm underneath one of their arms, thus she hoisted them both into the air as she began to fly. Angel looked calm as he rose into the air, Brian on the other hand wasn't as calm as his friend, despite the experience he had from flying with Neptune.

White Heart could feel a bit of twitching coming from Brian and was quick to question him about it. "Seriously, the hell's wrong with you? You're twitching again."

"I-It's nothing too serious, but I'm not the best person for flying," replied Brian.

"Is that all? Just get used to it already."

"I'll try my best, just don't expect a miracle."

"Can the two of you stop bickering already? We're supposed to go to Lowee," grumbled Angel.

"Yeah, I know," responded White Heart as she carried the brown haired duo northward.

"See ya guys later!" cried Neptune as she jumped in the air while waving her hands. Hey, Angel, if I get to see Plutie sometime soon I'll say that you said hi to her!"

"Good luck up there!" said Nepgear as she waved one hand.

"Best of wishes to you two," murmured Histoire. "I hope nothing goes wrong."

As the group flew through the air the two men looked at their surroundings, at least Angel did while Brian gritted his teeth and attempted to not look around much due to his distaste of flying. The scenery on the ground was covered in forests, small plains and a few mountain ranges, but as they went further north they encountered snowy fields and pine trees covered in snow, the air started to grow cold and the wind began to pick up strength. After sometime in the air Angel looked ahead and saw the shapes of buildings in the distance, small but noticeable. He tapped Brian on the shoulder and pointed at the shapes.

"Hey, look over there," said Angel as he pointed.

Brian managed to look at the direction of Angel's pointing finger and saw the shapes in the distance, he then looked up at White Heart and saw that she was focused on that same location.

"Blanc, are those the shapes of houses by any chance?" asked Brian.

"Yeah, why?" she responded coldly.

"Is that the city of Lowee?"

"Yep, the one and only. You guys better get used to the cold while you're staying here."

"I'm used to the cold, I trained myself to endure it by having extremely cold showers and baths," boasted Angel.

"I'm just bad at recognising temperature so I should be fine," remarked Brian.

White Heart wasn't sure how to respond to the two after they had spoken, she knew that normal people wouldn't endure the extreme cold of an icy shower or bath and normal people would be able to tell the temperature properly, but the two guys that she was carrying to Lowee were definitely not normal, far from it in fact.

When they approached the city White Heart slowed down and let them gaze upon her capital as they continued to fly to the Basilicom, the site of the city was enough to send the brown haired duo into a mumbling state, their reason: Lowee looked as if it came straight out of a fantasy RPG. The houses looked all fantasy like and snow covered parts of the streets and roofs of houses, stores and other buildings.

"Wow, this is … amazing!" cried Brian. "It looks like it comes from some sort of MMORPG!"

"Damn straight!" said Angel. "Wonder what else lays in store for us here?"

"You guys seem a little too excited," mumbled White Heart.

"Why shouldn't we be? This place looks awesome," responded Brian.

"Well at least first impressions are good, just wait till we get to the Basilicom."

"Is it that overly large building over there?" asked Angel as he pointed at a large mansion/palace type building. "Is that it?"

"Yeah, that's the Lowee Basilicom," replied White Heart with a smug look. "You're gonna enjoy the space there, and the library that's available for use."

"Is it easy to get lost in there?" asked Angel worrisomely. "I got lost in the Planeptune Basilicom a few times so I don't want a repeat of that."

"Don't worry about, it's easy to navigate through my Basilicom, though it does have large hallways so if you lot do get lost easily I would suggest caution."

As Brian looked down at the city below them he noticed the lack of technology around the place, there didn't seem to be any sort of industry around at all, this mildly pleased him as he didn't like too much industry, at times he would despise it. The mode for transportation was also different, instead of cars there were more bicycles and even horse drawn carriages, but most people walked instead. Everything looked peaceful and homely, it was something that Brian could get used to very quickly.

The group landed at the front entrance, which was a large white gate-like door that opened inwards, there was a guard dressed in a blue and brown uniform and stood to attention once he caught site of White Heart, then the group opened the large door and entered the Basilicom. They appeared in a large white and blue hallway that extended far into the Basilicom, there were many corners that led to different hallways and each one had more than several rooms with large white doors. There were not many people around except for the occasional maid or so. White Heart had reverted back to her human form and began to walk forward down the hallway, followed by Brian and Angel.

"So, where are he heading too?" asked Brian.

"There is a living room up ahead that will hopefully be accommodating to you two, from there both of you can do as you please, just don't damage or break anything, and stay out of my room unless I give you permission, and that also includes Rom and Ram's room," replied Blanc as she continued walking.

"Rom and Ram, who're they?" asked Angel.

"They're Blanc's little twin sisters, just be careful when you're near the both of them, especially Ram," replied Brian.

"Be careful? Wh-!"

As the group passed a corner a heavy book flung through the air until it crashed into Angel's face, smashing him into the wall face first before falling to the ground. Blanc and Brian turned around and saw the culprits, Rom and Ram, a bit further down the hallway that they were passing by, Ram was laughing to herself while Rom stood behind Ram and had a smile on her face.

"We got someone, Rom!" laughed Ram.

"Huh … there's two men, and one isn't Brian," Rom pointed out.

"What? Oh yeah, you're right Rom. So who's the guy we knocked out?"

"That's Angel, and you better apologise to him once he wakes up," replied Brian.

"Grr, you two … I told you both not to annoy our guests once they arrived!" shouted Blanc.

"Well so much for an introduction," mumbled Brian as he crouched and checked Angels vital signs, everything seemed alright to him. Angel started to mumble and woke up whilst rubbing his face.

"The hell was that?" he asked. "Whoever threw it didn't do it hard enough, it just needed a little more force to make it at least a tad painful."

Brian sighed and shook his head, at least Angel was still his normal self and didn't appear to be caring about who threw the book at him, meanwhile Blanc was yelling at the twins who didn't appear to be taking it seriously, well in Ram's case at least. It was an interesting start to the day in Lowee.

* * *

Sitting on a thick branch of a pine tree near the Lowee Basilicom was a lonely figure, pixels of snow covered the man's hood, coat and shoulders, a black glove gripped the tree firmly while his other gloved hand took hold of the branch he was sitting on. He had watched White Heart, Brian and Angel land in front of the Basilicom and enter the massive building, then his attention had been drawn to the now cloudy sky where little was happening. His eyes glowed red and blue as he sighed.

"It's about time they showed up, I cannot fight Severia the Stoic and her army of minions all by myself," said Wraith.

He stood up on the branch and looked once more at the Basilicom before climbing down the tree onto the snowy grassland, his boots left visible and heavy prints in the snow as he walked out of the city without any attention.

"Good luck, Brian and Angel, your destinies have already been laid before you, and there is no turning back. Not now, not ever. Your futures will be filled with suffering and grief, yet there will be times of happiness, even though it will not last long. Again, good luck, you will be tested in the days to come."

 **A/N: The glitch concerning me unable to read reviews seems to have been fixed, leave a comment if you so desire, suggest anything and have a good day.**


	28. Settling In

**Chapter 27: Settling In**

"So, these two are Rom and Ram?" asked Angel as he was seated on a white chair in the large living room.

After the incident the group had arrived in the living room, which included a white coloured TV with various consoles and games – which reminded the brown haired duo of Nintendo and Wii – plus there was also a large brown/white couch that took up some space in a corner of the room. Next to the couch there was several bookshelves filled with books of all sorts, be it colouring books, novels and others books which ranged from fiction to non-fiction. The walls were of a creamy colour and the floor had a light brown carpet. There was a table with four chairs around it and that was where Angel had decided to sit, Brian meanwhile decided to sit on the couch and admired the amount of books that were available for reading.

Blanc was not with them as she had informed them that she had planned something to do and intended to get it finished before anything else, what she was talking about no one really knew, but it looked as if Rom and Ram may have known what she was talking about yet the brown haired duo made no attempts to ask.

"Yeah, those are Blanc's twin sisters," replied Brian without taking his eyes of the books. "What were you expecting?"

"I guess I didn't really know what to expect I suppose, but are Goddesses supposed to be this young?"

"Just don't question it, I've given up trying to understand the logic of this world."

Rom and Ram were drawing on a large A3 piece of paper with various different coloured pencils, from what Brian and Angel could tell it looked as if they were drawing Blanc in rage mode as it had a crudely drawn face with a hat and a large red eye could be seen, it did make Brian a little worried about his host's personality. His thoughts, however, were interrupted by Ram's voice.

"Hey, dummy, are you going to play with us?" asked Ram.

Brian looked away from the bookshelves and stared at Ram, who happened to be standing in front of him, she was smiling at him while also staring straight into his eyes, waiting for the answer. Brian sighed and looked straight at her.

"Later, me and Angel just recently got here so it would be better if the two of us got more acquainted with the Basilicom and everything in it before doing anything," replied Brian.

"Aw, you're no fun. You said you would play with us whenever you were here!"

"If you remember I said that I would play with you after I've been through the library, once that's done I promise I will play with you and Rom."

"You better keep that promise or else, dummy."

"Can you please stop calling me a dummy? It isn't very nice you know."

"Nah, I like it."

Brian sighed, it began to dawn on him that staying in Lowee for a week was going to be tougher than he previously thought.

* * *

"Hmm … interesting, I had no idea that there were a lot of history books about Gmindustri in this library," muttered Brian.

The Ancient was standing amidst bookshelves littered with books of various size and order, so far he had discovered the history section of the library and had indulged himself in reading anything he came across. The trip to the library wasn't eventful and it didn't take long for him to find it due to Blanc telling him of its location before she left for whatever she had planned to do, though Brian was curious about it he guessed – correctly – that it was for the best that he didn't delve into the matter. Once he had entered the library he was stunned at its size; it was a huge creamy white room with dozens of bookshelves filled with untold number of books, he now had a new respect for Blanc because of it.

Brian was with Angel but the sadist decided to go and look at any training facilities that the Basilicom had, if there was one other strange thing with him it was his love of hellish training regimes, so Brian had to travel to the library alone, which was something that he didn't mind. It didn't take him long to find the non-fiction section and from there the history categories, he had a deep interest in history and thus he felt compelled to understand the history of Gamindustri, after all, his kin had made history thousands of years ago.

With that thought in kind he began his search for any books that had anything to do with the Ancients, he guessed that it wouldn't be easy but it was worth a shot, besides, he reasoned that even if he doesn't find anything useful in the library then Histoire might find something during her research.

"Come on come on, there has to be something in here about them," muttered Brian.

It was then that his gaze fell upon one particular book, it didn't look too large but it was the name of it that made him pick it off the shelve and look at the front cover; upon the cover were the national flags of the four nations of Gamindustri and in gold coloured words were written 'A History of the Console War'. Brian had heard of it before during his stay in Planeptune when Histoire mentioned it for a few seconds during a conversation, but he didn't press it any further as he had other things going on in his mind. He felt a little saddened that even in a wondrous place as Gamindustri there had been war. He kept holding the book in his left hand as he continued his search for anything that mentioned the Ancients.

As he kept up his search a person stood nearby holding a large pile of books and was placing them back onto the shelves with great care, it was a she and she happened to be standing a bit further away from Brian, yet the two didn't seem to sense each others presence, that was until the woman accidentally dropped a book and yelped.

"Huh? Who's there?" asked Brian as he turned around at the source of the noise. Standing further away from his was a woman dressed as a university graduate but instead of black or white it was coloured in red, he didn't pay much attention to her outfit but instead his gaze had turned to the large pile of books she was carrying. He bent down to the ground and picked up the books she had dropped and held it before her.

"You alright there?" he asked as he presented the book back to her.

"Uh, thanks for that," replied the woman as she took hold of the book. "The name is Mina, Oracle of Lowee, pleased to be acquainted with you, Mr …"

"Brian, the name's Brian and there is no need for 'Mr'."

"I see, Brian is it? Wait, could you be the same Brian that fell from the sky over Planeptune?"

"The very same, though that isn't what I'm being remembered for now."

"Why is that? Oh, could it be because of the incident at the Planeptune Basilicom?"

"You got it. I'm here for a week along with Angel, he's somewhere in the Basilicom looking for training facilities."

"I think I saw him before I came here, he looked rather … well, his looks made my spine shiver. What is up with him, if I may ask?"

"What you experienced is just normal, everyone usually gets it whenever they're near him. I got used to it … mildly."

"I-I see, what a strange friend you must have, Brian."

"He isn't that strange, just 'unique'."

With that said the conversation died as neither of them had anything else left to talk about, that and they just didn't know what to do next. Finally, after a minute of silence, Brian spoke up. "So, do you know where I might be able to find any books that reference the Ancients?"

"The Ancients? That is a strange request. Was there something that interests you with them?"

"I'm the last of the Ancients, I think I have the right to know more about my race."

"O-Oh, I see, I'll try and help you find any books regarding them."

Mina then placed the pile of books she was carrying onto the ground and proceeded to look through the shelves to find anything that regarded the Ancients, Brian too did the same thing and together they searched every shelve in the history section for anything related to the Ancients. The endeavour took longer than they were expecting considering the size of the place, from around 12:40 to 2:30 they searched through the entire section and even different parts of the library just in case they happened to be in the wrong spots. The two of them eventually gathered around a table that had two comfy chairs that looked as if it belonged in a fancy person's living room, they then placed all the books they could find onto the table.

"This is all that I could find," said Mina. "Sorry that there isn't a lot."

"No need to apologise for that, I too had trouble trying to find anything about the Ancients," responded Brian. "Who knew that it would be hard to find anything regarding them."

Out of the hundreds, if not thousands, of books that they looked through in the library they only managed to find a few books that were related to the Ancients, a total of five books – not including the book about the Console War – took up little space on the wooden table, it soon came to his mind that Brian realised that the past was really obscure and possibly almost forgotten.

"I had expected more than just five books, but it's better than none I suppose," mumbled Brian. "Thanks for the help, Mina."

"It was no problem at all. Now, if you excuse me I have to return to the pile of books and continue to put them back where they belong," said Mina.

The Oracle then bowed and walked away back to her pile of books, she disappeared as she walked down the various bookshelves and Brian could not see her. With a sigh he sat down on the chair and began to look at the different books that he had gathered, not all looked promising as he gazed at the front covers, yet there was one that caught his eye. Brian picked it up and looked at the title which read, 'The Ancients: A History of the Lost Race of Gamindustri', surprisingly it was written by the same author who wrote 'A History of the Console War', they were both written by someone called 'Malcolm Von Leanbox'.

"Interesting. Guess I better start reading," muttered Brian to himself quietly.

He opened to the first chapter of the history book and began to read it, the chapter was about introducing the Ancients, who they were and about their origins. The further he delved into reading it the more intrigued he became, from what he could read it appeared that the Ancients were actually from a different continent that sank due to unknown reasons, in theory at least, it then went on to talk about the strange tales that surrounded them, such as dimension travelling and the ability to absorb different types of powers. When Brian began to read the next chapter it described the different patterns of settlements that had been discovered by archaeologists from the four nations, and from that they could gather that the Ancients lived in luxury, but it also said that no one was sure whether these settlements were all part of one nation or just city-states. The rest of the chapter, and the next, talked about the supposed lifestyle that the lost race had and the different architectural styles that they had compared to modern society, but what interested Brian was the chapter that talked about their disappearance.

"Interesting, utterly interesting," murmured Brian.

From what he read about the disappearance of the Ancients it looked as if it was still shrouded in mystery, however, it did mention that all records from the period seemed to have been misplaced or even destroyed, so whatever happened was rather suspicious. Although, there were two clues: the first was the sudden drop in the Ancient population and a steady rise in the modern human population, then there was the large amount of burnt stones and ash soil in whatever Ancient settlements that had been found, the number of settlements that had been found were very low and almost non-existent. Brian had been reading for what seemed like hours and after reading the last chapter he closed the book and sighed.

"Well, I now know a little more about my race, yet there is still several questions that remain unanswered," mumbled Brian. "Though I'm very sure what brought the Ancients to their knees: war. Question is, who were they fighting and why?"

* * *

Angel walked down the long empty hallway by himself whilst whistling, the sounds of it echoed down the hallway in all directions for anyone to hear if they happened to be nearby. So far he had failed to find any sort of training facility, so he did the only thing he could do: keep looking. He was getting a tad fed up as he could not find what he was looking for. He had been walking for around an hour ever since he decided to split from Brian and he was still unlucky in finding his objective.

"Guess I should've asked Blanc where the training facilities were, though with all that I've seen around here I doubt that there is any sort of place to train till I can't move," grumbled Angel.

He turned down a different hallway and opened the first door he came across, to his surprise he had found the armoury and saw all the different types of weapons at the disposal of the guards, soldiers and the CPU. Angel walked in and gazed upon the rows of spears and swords on racks, shields stacked onto tables, interesting looking rifles that occupied a large percentage of the weapons in the armoury took residence on racks and pieces of armour were piled in neat stacks. Everything looked fairly futuristic to Angel yet he had a hard time trying to figure out whether it was Lowee that manufactured the weapons, or if it was another nation who did it.

 _Well this is confusing, I thought Lowee was supposed to be behind the other nations of Gamindustri technologically, so how could they have all these sorts of weapons?_

"Are you alright, sir?" asked a calm voice behind the sadist.

Angel turned around and saw one of Blanc's servants looking at him, her hands were held in front of her, she wore a white dress and her hair was short and blonde while she wore black leggings and shoes. Angel didn't pay much attention to her attire but instead noticed his gaze would occasionally look at her breasts, which he noted were a C cup.

"Hmm? Is something wrong, sir?" she asked.

"No, no, there isn't anything wrong. Erm, is it possible for you to tell me how did Lowee manage to get this amount of weapons without having the industry to do so?" responded Angel, his gaze still upon her breasts.

"Well, some of the weapons and armour you see here was actually manufactured in Lastation, they happen to be rather militaristic when it comes to making weapons. A few others, mainly the spears, came from Leanbox and the rest is made locally, especially the rifles." She hadn't seem to notice that Angel was glancing at her breasts at any opportunity.

"So what are those rifles then? I thought that Lowee didn't use such weapons."

"That's were most people get their facts wrong, these pulse rifles are locally made and are used by the core of the Lowee army, the Magical Soldiers. No, they're not wizards before you ask, they are just called that because of the magical feeling of Lowee."

"Huh, that is interesting. Oh, by the way, do you happen to know if there is any training facilities around here somewhere?"

"Yes, there happens to be one just down the hallway from here. I'll lead you to it."

Angel followed the servant out of the armoury, closed the door and walked down the hallway to the designated location. Again, everything was quiet except for the tapping of the servant's shoes and Angel's whistling, some people would find it awkward yet not Angel, he was used to it. Once they reached the specified location the servant opened the door and Angel was left staring at a large training facility filled with a few different training weapons and dummies, there were several battle marks on the walls and the dummies. Angel looked rather pleased as he stepped forward into the large room and gazed upon everything that he could see. The walls, unlike the rest of the Basilicom, were not white or a creamy colour but instead was a metallic and dark brown colour, the marks on the walls were somewhat obscured by the colour.

"This is pretty cool, I could get use to this," remarked Angel.

"Have a good day, sir," said the servant before she walked away.

"Yeah, thanks. Now then, lets train!"

Angel pulled his two-handed longsword from the sheath on his back and began to practice his swinging and sword strikes on one of the dummies, he was swift when it came to swinging and would never miss his target. He twirled the blade around in one hand and stabbed the dummy through the chest before moving the sword upward through the dummy, then he used his strength to slice the blade through the dummy's head and, in an 180 degrees turn, forced his blade from the dummy to the floor behind him as he turned. The tip of his sword had become embedded in the floor, leaving various marks around the damaged ground, Angel smirked at the sight when he looked back at the dummy; its top half was severally damaged and the head was hanging off.

"I guess I'm a lot stronger than I give myself credit," said Angel thoughtfully. "Hmm, I wonder if the library would have any training books or perhaps even some books that teach special attacks, I refuse be the only person around here who is unable use special attacks."

* * *

"Poke, poke, poke."

Blanc poked Brian's face to get him to wake up, without any success at all as it only got the Ancient to murmur quietly, apart from that his sleeping session remained unaltered. This had been going on for a few minutes ever since Blanc found him asleep whilst sitting on a chair with his head and arms on the table, there were several of the books he and Mina gathered underneath his head and arms while a book was laying beside the right side of his head. After Blanc poked him a few more times she noticed the book and picked it up and looked at the title, it read 'The Ancients: A History of the Lost Race of Gamindustri'.

"Hmm, that is interesting, I forgot I even had this book in the library," muttered Blanc quietly. "So, he's researching the Ancients, to what end though?"

She put the book back onto the table and resumed her poking session, it was starting to get a bit frustrating for her as Brian refused to be woken up. "Poke, poke. Tch, he still isn't waking up, perhaps I should step it up a notch."

She then raised her right fist high into the air and, with the speed of a cheetah, slammed her fist down and smashed it upon Brian's head. She got the reaction she was looking for as Brian woke up and immediately groaned in pain as he rubbed his head.

"What … what the bloody hell was that?" he asked himself quietly and tiredly.

"I was just waking you up," responded Blanc.

Brian looked up to see the CPU of Lowee looking down at him with a carefree look on her face, he rubbed his head and sat up straight to stretch his back and arms, he sighed with relief once his bones cracked and he then slummed back into the chair.

"Could there have been another way for you to wake me up instead of smashing your fist on my head?" asked Brian, he sounded a tad calm, almost too calm.

"You weren't waking up no matter what I did, so what I just did was good enough for me," replied Blanc.

"There could have been a nicer way instead of using violence you know, people who use violence for no good reason usually aren't held in good regard."

"Are you insinuating something?" Blanc's tone had started to become agitated as she spoke.

"No, not really, just a bit of advice: being angry all the time won't help you, it certainly didn't help me."

Brian stood up and looked down at the CPU in front of him, she just continued to look at him with either a glaring look or just a normal stare, things became a little awkward quickly as the two of them continued to stare at each other, neither one of them blinking. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Brian sighed and picked up his books before he began to walk away.

"If you just woke me up for no good reason then I'll take my leave," said Brian. "I've got better things to do."

"Wait, please, I didn't mean to be rude to you, you just wouldn't wake up no matter what I did," responded Blanc quickly.

Brian stopped walking away and turned to look at Blanc. "Fine then, what was your reason for waking me up?"

"It's getting late and dinner is being served, I came here to fetch you from whatever you were doing."

"What's the time?"

"It's past eight, I guess you've been asleep for a while."

"Huh, I suppose you're right." Brian looked out of the nearby large window and noticed that it had turned dark, the stars were beginning to appear and the last hint of the Sun was barely visible on the horizon to the west. "Lead the way then, but I gotta stop by my room to drop these books off first, if I have a room that is."

"Of course you have a room, I would have been foolish to have you and Angel without rooms."

"Right, thanks for that, and I'm sorry for being rude to you. You should be grateful, I rarely apologise to anyone."

Blanc chuckled at Brian, she seemed fairly amused at his comment. "I have no doubt. Come on, I'll show you to your room and then the dining hall."

Brian followed Blanc down the rows of bookshelves as he carried his books with him, there seemed to be no end for the amount of books that filled the oversized library and that pleased Brian to no end. When they approached the door Blanc gestured for Brian to go first as a sign of respect, with a slight nod Brian opened the library door and as soon as he stepped out of the library a bucket filled to the brim with mud fell on his head, encasing most of the top half of his body with the warm mud. Blanc gasped and ran out to help him and as soon as she took the bucket off his head the sounds of laughter filled the hallway and echoed down it, Blanc and Brian – who had rubbed the mud off his eyes and parts of his face – looked at where the source of the laughter came from, there they saw Ram laughing and rolling around on the floor while Rom stood nearby with a slight smile on her face.

"Ha ha ha ha! That was so funny! That dummy fell right into it! Ha ha ha!" laughed Ram uncontrollably.

"Ram …," growled Blanc.

"What? He went in the library and didn't come out to play with us, so that was his punishment for not playing with us!"

"Uh huh, he broke his promise," muttered Rom.

What happened next spooked Blanc and freaked out Rom and Ram. When Rom looked at Brian she noticed that a blue energy was engulfing him and his eyes were flaring blue, she ran to Ram and pointed at Brian. "Uh, Ram, what's happening to him?"

"What are you … oh, that looks freaky," said Ram as she began to back off.

Blanc looked over at Brian and saw him encased in Share Energy, giving him a scary and, as Blanc later described it, a deathly appearance. He snarled at the twins as he approached them slowly.

"Damn you, damn you both, if you thought Blanc was scary when she was angry then you got another thing coming," snarled Brian.

"Brian! That's enough!" shouted Blanc.

Brian stopped walking and sighed as he turned back at Blanc. "What is it?"

"Stop scaring my little sisters, they're utterly freaked out," demanded Blanc as she glared at him.

"Tell them to not play another prank, or else I won't be held responsible for anything that happens."

"Don't you dare threaten my sisters!"

Brian looked at Blanc, who was growing more mad by the second, then he turned back to look at the Lowee twins to see them holding each other in fright. Brian face-palmed and slowly the Share Energy died down until no blue aura could be seen and his eyes returned to normal, he groaned and appeared to be feeling guilty about the incident as his fingers twitched. He looked over to Rom and Ram but couldn't keep eye contact with them.

"I … I'm sorry about that, I truly am," apologised Brian.

Rom and Ram could only nod in response but it left Brian feeling even more guilty, he looked back at Blanc and did the same thing; apologise. "I am sorry about that, I didn't mean for my anger to get control over me. It just seems that I get pissed off more easily than before, and when that happens my anger activates my Share Energy and I have the urge to harm anything and anyone in my way."

Blanc nodded in response before speaking. "I see, we'll just have to be more careful when around you then."

"I suppose so, I'll just find my room on my own then and skip dinner. Good night you three."

Brian walked away from the three Goddesses, feeling dejected, guilty and depressed, his anger had gotten the better of him once again but he did count himself lucky that no one got hurt. As he walked away the CPUs of Lowee watched him depart the group and down the darkening hallway, Blanc looked at him with a sense of pity while Rom and Ram were still frightened but had regained their composure.

"Hey, Blanc, what are we gonna do with him?" asked Ram.

"Well, I am sure that he means he's sorry, so he can be forgiven. Just let me talk to him in the morning so I can clear up anything," replied Blanc. "And, if he's feeling up for it, he might play with you two as he promised. For now leave him alone, I think he just needs to be alone for the moment, now go to dinner, I'll join you soon."

The twins nodded and walked away towards the dining hall while Blanc was left alone in the hallway, she sighed as she saw Brian walk around a corner down to another hallway, she then decided to follow him and guide him to his room, despite what he said. When she finally caught up with him he turned around and looked at her.

"Why are you following me? I said I could do it by myself."

"Well, you're going the wrong way so I came along to help you."

"Fine then, lead the way."

Blanc led Brian down another hallway until she stopped by a large door and opened it, inside was a room with a bed that was covered in white, light blue and brown sheets in the left corner, a wardrobe in the right corner, a small desk next to the bed and a window occupied a part of the wall further away from the desk, the walls were a creamy colour and the floor had a brown carpet, there was also an empty bookshelf that occupied some space near the wardrobe. It looked rather comfortable to Brian's standards.

"This is one of the guest rooms, Angel's room is just across the hallway in front of here," Blanc informed Brian. "I'm heading to the dining hall now, I'll bring you some of the food after I'm done eating."

"You don't have to you know."

"I cannot allow you to finish the day without eating dinner, so don't complain about it."

"Very well then."

Blanc then smiled at him, and then she saw the same reaction she got back in Planeptune: a blushing face and a sense of uneasiness. "Huh? Is there something wrong?"

"N-No, no there isn't. Thank you."

"My pleasure." Blanc then left the room and closed the door, leaving Brian to do whatever he wanted to do. Yet she couldn't understand why he reacted like that, she sighed and continued to walk down towards the dining hall, her mind filled with questions.

 **A/N: Thank you to those who are following this, I know I'm not particularly good at this but I'm getting better, I hope anyway.** **Also found out that the story has found it's way into 'hyperdimension writer's guild',** **it's a community thing filled with stories from across the site. Anyway, let me know if you have any suggestions and I'll see you next time.**


	29. The Pirate Queen

**Chapter 28: The Pirate Queen**

Morning had returned to Gamindustri and in an area east of Lowee stood a series of snow clad buildings surrounded by trees with hidden barbed wire, everything looked peaceful and sounded quiet, but it was all an illusion as there were camouflaged guards walking around with swords, spears and rifles, they wore little armour and their snow camouflaged clothes made it hard for them to be spotted. Many of the guards had jackets and other winter clothing on to warm themselves up, even little camp-fires had been introduced to some of the shivering guards. They were all on patrol and seemed to be ready for an all-out attack in case anyone was nearby, if there was anyone daring enough to attack a fortified fort.

One of the guards walked up to a steel door that led into the largest building and opened it, as he stepped inside he found himself in a heated stone corridor with a few steel doors, there weren't many guards inside the buildings as there wasn't much to protect, it was defending the perimeter that mattered to their leader. The young guard walked down the corridor until he reached some stairs and walked up to the higher level, once he reached the top floor – there were only three floors and not including the basement – the guard approached the steel door at the end of the corridor and came face-to-face with a giant of a man, the so-called 'giant' was dressed like the other guards except for a green sash that was strapped from his right shoulder all the way down to his left waist, the 'giant' also had a big bushy black beard.

"What is it?" asked the 'giant' with a rude tone. "The lady doesn't want to the interrupted."

"I know, but … I want to speak with her, not just on my behalf but for the behalf of many others here," replied the guard. "Plus I have some news."

"Your funeral, just don't take too long or else she's gonna impale you with her peculiar weapon."

The 'giant' then opened the door and watched as the young guard stepped into the room, the door was closed and the guard was left staring at a woman sitting on a soft leather couch with a coffee table in front of her. The walls were brown concrete and the floor was covered in a blue mat, the room itself wasn't too big yet it wasn't small, there was a bed in one of the corners and there was a steel breastplate with steel arm-plates and leg-plates, a trident with the two end blades curled towards the middle was leaning up against the wall closest to the couch. The woman held a cup of hot tea in front of her and was taking small sips from it every fifteen seconds. Once she saw the young guard enter the room she sighed, put the cup of tea down on the table and looked over at him.

"What is it? Was there something important that occurred? If not then leave," the woman spoke.

"Lady Severia, Squad 4 hasn't returned from patrol, I fear the worse," reported the guard.

"It is the doing of The Wraith, he's been harassing the patrols lately and whenever I go to find him he always disappears into the shadows, he is a sneaky character and one to be feared."

"I-I see. If I may ask, who is he?"

"The Wraith? Hmm, how do I put it … well, I'm not a hundred percent sure what he is but I know one thing; he has the power of a god, and he may actually be one. He is just as fearsome as the other Dark Captains, in fact, if he hadn't fought alongside the CPUs then people would possibly have mistaken him as one of us, strangely enough he is rumoured to be older than the Goddesses of this dimension and can travel between dimensions."

"Alright then, by the way … I – no, we – have some concerns about what is going to happen, we're not sure what is going to happen but we feel … uneasy about it."

"Care to explain more about this uneasiness that you and your comrades are feeling?"

Severia stared deep into the man's soul as she spoke, it made him rather scared. He had heard from some of the other guards that Severia the Stoic wasn't like the other Dark Captains, instead of being cruel and plain nasty upfront to everyone she was instead dignified, calm and rather upper class. However, the guard had also heard that she was just as cruel and brutal as Agandur's Right Hand while also fiercely intelligent like the rest, with that in mind the guard knew that he would have to keep himself out of harms way and make sure he didn't annoy Severia.

"Well, we don't know what's really happening and what the objectives are, all we know is that we are defending this place until further notice. So what are we fighting against? Who is the enemy? Why are we doing this?"

Severia sighed and continued to look at the guard. "Tell me, why did you join us?"

"I joined because I had nowhere to go and nowhere to call home."

"Heh, just as I thought: you're clueless about what it is you are supposed to do. Very well then, I'll tell you. We are here to bring about the resurrection of the Dark Lord Agandur, we plan to gather the Share Energy of the four nations of Gamindustri and use that power to bring about his return, then the world shall be reborn anew and unity will prevail, a world ruled by humans for humans. No goddesses or gods, no divine beings at all that can rule the masses by force."

"That doesn't sound so bad, I can fight for that."

"Good, because it is our destiny and our destiny cannot be moved as the stars themselves, now shut up and leave so I can drink my tea in peace."

"V-very well then, Lady Severia."

The guard quickly opened the door and stepped outside the room, the 'giant' looked at him and smirked. "You still seem to be in one piece, so that's something to be proud of."

"But now I don't know what to do."

"Just get back to patrolling the area and keep an eye out for any intruders, especially The Wraith."

"What does he look like?" The guard was rather interested in who or what The Wraith was and wanted all the information that he could gather, he didn't want to end up as mince meat if he ever got into a fight with this ghost-like figure.

"How should I know? I never seen him, in fact I doubt anyone has seen him except for those he kills, but we never hear their story cause they're dead, so just keep your wits about you and stay alive; a storm is brewing and bloodshed will follow."

Back inside the room Severia continued to drink her cup of tea, which by now had started to cool down, much to her annoyance. She enjoyed drinking tea, it was something that she had got addicted to during her childhood back in her home dimension, it was something that the other Dark Captains didn't understand and could never understand. As Severia drank the last of her tea she looked at her trident and felt her heart grow heavy, it had been a while since she last gave thought to the painful memories that haunted her past.

"I will never forget you, all of you, especially you … brother" muttered Severia quietly.

* * *

 _It was a bright and sunny day, the wind was gone and there were little clouds dotting the sky, everything seemed peaceful in the medieval styled mansion, yet there was always a source of conflict. Inside what is modernly called the living room was a small family settling a debate in strong, harsh words._

 _There were four people present, the first was a tall middle-aged man with dark brown hair hair and blue eyes, his hair was short and he wore a set of fancy robes that stretched from the neck and long sleeves all the way to his knees, embroidered in bright jewels covered the rims of the sleeves and the clothes were a dark brown colour, his boots were as brown as his eyes. A gold belt ran across the waist of the robes and a steel dagger was strapped to the left waist. The second person was a woman who wore a long silver dress with gold lining, a brown belt was worn around the waist, he hair was long and grey, the hair was tied in a ponytail and her eyes were blue, she was covered in different types of jewellery around her neck and on parts of her clothes. These two were the owners of the mansion and were parents to the other two before them._

 _The last two looked to be brother and sister and appeared to be around sixteen years old and also looked like twins, both had blue eyes and grey hair and both wore upper class clothes, the boy wore an outfit similar to his father but shorter and with less jewellery, his boots were black and a black belt was around his waist, his hair was short and he looked uneasy as he stood next to his sister while their father yelled at her. The sister's hair was long and reached down to the middle of her back, she wore a similar attire to her mother but was instead a sky blue colour and a white belt was around her waist. The two twins were of the same height – around five ft six – and were attempting to survive a barrage of harsh words that were directed towards the young girl._

" _You will do as I say! This is what has to happen and you will go along with it, and nothing you can say will change that!" shouted the father to his daughter._

 _The girl cringed and glared at her father while the boy face-palmed and sighed silently, the mother sat on a chair at a marble table, she had her head down and openly sighed at the scene, the mother knew that the plan that she and her husband had created was going to cause some problems but what they were now experiencing was completely not what they were expecting: their daughter had been missing for several days and had returned under imperial guard back to their mansion, apparently she had taken up the life of a bandit but was caught by the local guard. Now she was at the mercy of an angry father, a deeply disappointed mother and a brother who wasn't sure what was going to happen._

" _And why should I listen to you, father?" asked the daughter venomously._

" _You will marry him and that is final!"_

" _No! I refuse to marry that jerk of a nobleman, I don't care if the family will get more powerful because of it! I refuse to become his wife just for power!"_

" _The deal has already been made, you will just have to out up with it, Severia. Now then, go to your room and wait. Stephen, take your sister to her room."_

 _Stephen nodded and guided his twin sister up a set of marble stairs and led her down a heavily decorated hallway until they both reached a large door that led into Severia's room. They both entered the room and closed the door behind them, Severia walked to her bed – which was a large king-sized bed with green sheets – and fell on it weeping, the green sheets began to be soaked with her tears. Stephen looked on at the site with pity until he sat down next to her and patted her back._

" _Please, don't cry, there is still a way out of this," said Stephen._

" _Why should you care?" asked Severia with anger. "You're just a pawn of our father."_

" _You know that isn't true, you're just saying that because I led you up here. Don't you want to know my plan to get you out of this?"_

" _You … you want to help me get out of this damn wedding? Well I'm up for some ideas, what do you have in mind?"_

" _The first one is: kill yourself, but I would never allow that to happen. The second is: fake your death. The third is: leave this place and never return. Those are your options."_

" _Let me think it over, I still need to recover from all that formal abuse."_

" _Alright then, take care."_

 _Stephen then stood up and left the room, leaving Severia by herself to mull over the ideas that her twin brother gave her. None of them seemed to be pleasing, especially the first one which she had already ruled out. Severia spent the next three hours thinking over the ideas that had been presented to her, that was the case until she heard loud noises radiating from down the hallway, she walked over to the door and opened it slightly to see her brother and father in a heated argument, she didn't know what they were arguing about until she heard them speak her name, it then sounded as if they were arguing about the weeding._

" _If she doesn't want to go through with it then she shouldn't, haven't we got enough land that can fit three whole villages on already?" remarked Stephen._

" _This is more than just land, my son, this is also about power. The more power we have the better we shall be seen in the emperor's court, and then who knows, maybe someday we'll finally get a family connection to the imperial bloodline," responded the father._

" _Damn you and your political machinations, can you not see the mental pain you're causing Severia to go through? Can you not understand that what you are doing is just stupid? Do you even care about her?"_

" _Don't you dare speak to me in that tone, you do well to remember who is in charge of the house around here."_

" _Yeah, I do know: a wretched man who cares only for power. You're nothing but a fool."_

 _Stephen walked away towards Severia's room and ignored his father's protests as he entered the room and closed the door, locking it to prevent the man from entering and continuing the argument. The twins heard their father walk away back down the corridor, much to their relief, and once they couldn't hear his muffled footsteps they both looked at each other and sighed simultaneously._

" _I've had enough of the old man. Have you come to a decision already?"_

 _Severia had hoped he wouldn't ask about it yet, but he seemed to be rather pissed off and therefore wanted some sort of answer to cool down his nerves. During the three hours of thinking Severia hadn't liked the three options, but the third one was the most promising as she had already attempted to do that once before. That was going to be her answer._

" _Yes, I'm going to leave this place behind and start a new life, I don't know what I will become but anything is better than this I suppose," replied Severia._

" _Good choice, especially since faking you're own death will would have been a hard task to accomplish. Hmm, now that I think about it, I'll be coming with you."_

" _Coming with me? Why? Wherever I go will be filled with danger as I will be sought out by every single bounty hunter in the Empire. I cannot allow you to travel along with me if anything like that is going to happen to me, or to you."_

" _Hey, we're twins, we have to stick together. You better get packing, and get into some travelling clothes, you can't go walking around as an outlaw in that attire."_

" _I wasn't planning on it. Now make yourself scarce, I don't want you around when I'm getting changed. Meet back here in half an hour."_

" _Alright then, just pack light, we're going to travel through the wild you know."_

* * *

 _The moon had risen over the land, the stars were out and about and the air was cold, meanwhile on the ground in the trees and bushes rode two teenagers on two horses, these were the two twins. Severia wore brown pants, a dark blue shirt with short sleeves and a sword was strapped to her back, a steel chest-plate was worn on her chest, steel gauntlets were on her hands while small pieces of plate armour covered parts of her arms and steel boots were upon her feet. Stephen wore black pants, black boots, a brown shirt with leather armour around the chest, arms and legs, a mace was strapped to his right waist, both of the twins had stolen their armour from the local guards during their escape. They both had leather backpacks on their horses filled with food, water and other essentials that would help them survive. The two of them had been riding in the wild for several days towards the east, making their way to a town on the coast, their plan was to gather supplies there before deciding where to go next._

" _What happens if the guards there are looking for us?" asked Stephen._

" _We'll just have to be sneaky," replied Severia. "I'm sure the whole Empire knows about our disappearance."_

 _After many more hours they arrived at the stone walls of the seaport town that they were aiming for, they dismounted from their horses and hid them in the most dense part of the forest before approaching the wall with a long set of rope and a hook attacked to one end, Stephen looked up at the battlements and saw several chain mail armoured guards with steel helmets and long spears walking along, there weren't many of them and after watching them for a while he noticed that the area of the battlements above them were unguarded for a small period of time, so they both waited until there were no guards in sight before throwing up the rope and hook and managed to climb up the wall before any guards turned up._

 _The two twins made their way through the town secretly, avoiding any guards by walking and hiding in the shadows, until they reached the tavern. Stephen's stomach growled loudly as he smelled the cooked meat, he looked over at his twins sister and smiled slightly, causing her to shake her head and chuckle._

" _Well, I suppose it wouldn't hurt to get some supplies from this tavern, we are starting to run out of food," said Severia. "But we cannot both enter here, only one at a time to ensure our safety. I'll go first."_

" _What? No, I'm going first."_

" _Says you, besides, you're carrying a mace and I've only got a sword and that means I would look less conspicuous, plus I can actually talk my way out of certain situations. You just wait nearby and if I don't come back out in around fifteen minutes then come and get me."  
_

 _Stephen nodded and walked away towards the docks, which happened to be nearby and full of various merchant ships and a few boats for the war fleet, he then proceeded to sit on a wooden crate and watch his surroundings, Severia entered the tavern and prepared herself mentally for anything that was to happen. When she entered the wooden building and closed the door behind her she was left staring at various wooden tables, stools and chairs filled with people from their young years to their elder years, many of the people present in the tavern appeared to be merchants from other coastal towns, a few were sailors from the war fleet and most others were common citizens. No guards were in sight and everything appeared to be alright for her, there were a few mercenaries around but they didn't pay any attention to her._

 _Severia walked up to the bar and sat on a free stool, on either side of her were two drunk men who appeared to be citizens of the town, out of the two only one seemed to be capable of speech. He looked over at her and grinned at her, causing Severia to cringe in distaste as the man had a missing tooth and bad breath, not to mention his ragged clothes which looked like an army of moths had been at it.  
_

" _Stop your foul grinning and go somewhere else," grumbled Severia._

" _Why? You seem lonely and in need of company," said the man. "Perhaps I can give you that."_

" _I advise you to stay your distance away from me, or else."_

" _Else what? Let's just have some fun … wha?!"_

 _Severia then grabbed the man by the throat and punched him in the face, breaking his nose, before holding him with two hands and throwing him over the bar, sending the drunk man into a state of unconsciousness as he smashed onto the ground. The bartender merely glanced at the unconscious man and shrugged, causing Severia to raise an eyebrow at him._

" _You're not going to charge me for that?" she asked._

" _Nah, he had it coming for a while now, he ain't been nothin' but trouble ever since he got in that damn fight," responded the bartender._

" _Fight? What fight?"_

" _I can tell you ain't from around here if you're asking that question. Well, this fellow over 'ere, the one you kindly knocked out aka Jimmy, was in a fight with some strange fellow a while back, around a few weeks ago I think. The fight took place outside of town and ol' Jimmy here got completely traumatised to the point where his brain doesn't work properly, now he goes about getting drunk and attempt to have his way with any woman near him."_

" _So who was this strange person? And why was there a fight?"_

" _I don't know why there was a fight, maybe it was Jimmy trying to get some money of the guy, but the fellow whom he fought with … well, he ain't natural. Apparently he's some sort of ghost in physical form, or some sort of demon."_

" _I've seen him," spoke a new voice that came from the other end of the bar. Severia and the bartender looked at the source of the voice and saw a ginger haired woman covered in a fur cloak and leather armour underneath, she looked over at the two of them and drank the last of her ale from her wooden mug._

" _You heard me, I said I saw him once, just a week ago up north, he was dressed as black as night and I couldn't see any sort of skin, but what stood out was his eyes, his flaring red and blue eyes, I thought I could even see a hint of dark purple swirling in those dead red and blue eyes of his." The woman shuddered as she recalled the memory and looked away._

 _Apart from the news about the mysterious wraith – whom Severia had taken to calling him 'The Wraith' – there was also news about repeating bandit raids and the restlessness of the barbarian tribes across the northern border, then there was some news about a certain young man: The Nameless One._

" _Aye, he's been up and about in the lowland countries to the south-west and now he's heading to the northern border, not sure what he's expecting to find except for hostile guards," said an old man._

" _I can only pity the towns and villages that get in his way," commented another man._

 _Even Severia had heard of the Nameless One, a young man who had taken up the life of a rogue mercenary at a very young age and had carved his place in imperial history through blood, steel and magic, to her mind he sounded horrible but that was before she and her brother had fled their family mansion, now the life of a rogue sounded like a holiday. Although, as she thought about it, being a bandit was too generic, plus their father would expect them both to be somewhere on land, so where to go? Perhaps leaving for the sea and taking up the life of a pirate? It wasn't a popular career but it sounded like fun and came with rich rewards in plunder. Then she felt someone tap her shoulder and as she turned around she saw her brother staring at her, disappointed and unamused._

" _It's way past fifteen minutes, have you even gathered some supplies at all?" he asked her in a serious tone._

" _Erm … no, er … sorry, brother," replied Severia with an upset voice._

 _Stephen sighed and patted his sister on the head. "Don't worry about it, let's get out of here before we catch too much attention."_

" _Um, about that … I kinda did cause some attention. You see that guy down there, yeah … I kinda knocked him out."_

" _And what a throw that was!" exclaimed a voice from behind them. The two twins turned around and saw a man wearing leather and chain mail armour that covered his chest, arms and legs, an axe was strapped to his waist, a scar ran down his forehead and across his blind right eye, he had messy black hair and a black moustache. This was the leader of the mercenaries._

" _It wasn't much," said Severia._

" _Wasn't much? Wasn't much?! That bastard had it coming for a while, he's been trying to beg money off me and my pals for a while now, almost wanted to kill him but I didn't want to clean up the mess afterwards."_

 _Stephen chuckled at the remark. "Well that's all and good, but we've gotta go after we get some supplies."_

" _Hold up, brother, maybe they can be of use to use," suggested Severia. "I was thinking of an idea before you came in here and I want to share it with you: how about we become pirates?"_

" _Pirates? That isn't a popular career you know, but, I can see the merit behind it. Alright, I'm in."_

" _So you two plan on being pirates? Since I have respect for the young lady here I can sign me and my lads up for a life on the seas, but everyone has their price. What can you offer to me and my lads?" asked the mercenary leader._

" _A large portion of any loot that we can get from coastal towns and trade ships, plus we can pay you up front here and now," replied Severia as she pulled out a small leather purse filled with gold coins and presented it to the mercenary leader. "Here's the first part of your payment, be loyal and there will be more gold coins for you and your lads."_

 _The mercenary leader looked at the coins and smiled at the twins. "Our blades are at your command. What is your plan?"_

" _First thing to do is for my brother here to get our horses inside the town and sell them, then he'll gather some supplies, in the meantime the rest of us will capture a navel vessel from the dock. Stephen, if you run into trouble we'll bail you out, I promise."_

" _I know," responded Stephen. "Good luck and may the Gods smile upon you."_

 _They all left the tavern and Stephen left for the gates while Severia and the mercenaries – which numbered around ten in total – made their way towards the dock, when they walked past a blacksmith that had been closed for the night Severia noticed a peculiar weapon that was laying on the ground next to the anvil, she bent down and picked it up to reveal it as a trident that stood over four ft long and the two end blades were curled towards the middle, all the pointed edges were sharp and deadly._

 _A trident eh?" remarked the mercenary leader. "A fitting weapon for a pirate captain."_

" _No, not a pirate captain, a pirate queen: Severia the Pirate Queen. Once we get out to sea we're going to have a good time raiding the coastal towns and plundering the trade routes. Let's show the Empire what we're made of!"_

* * *

"Yes, those were the good times. Now I am the last one … the last one …" muttered Severia quietly to herself. It was then that she noticed a single tear dripping down her right cheek, she wiped her eyes and sighed to herself.

As she looked out through an open glass window she noticed that the clouds had gathered densely and the wind had started to pick up swiftly, deciding to close the window to reserve the heat in the room she stood up from the couch and closed the window tightly, the cold air from outside no longer could infiltrate the room. Severia returned to sitting on the couch and looked down at her empty cup of tea, now she wanted another one as she felt rather uncomfortable without having at least eight cups of tea per morning, and the last one was her third. With a grunt she picked herself off the couch once more and walked over to the steel door, there was to be more tea to make before mid-day arrived.

* * *

 **A/N: And that's a part of Severia's back-story done, now I have to create one for Lothar and Kharzark, although I have a feeling that I will have to up the rating if I do that though. I took a look at the reviews and there was one that caught my eye: a lemon fic for Angel and Plutia. That idea sounds interesting and I could incorporate that into the story, if only I knew how to write a lemon scene. Anyway, have a good day readers.  
**


	30. Plutia's Feelings

**Chapter 29: Plutia's Feelings**

As the events in the Hyperdimension continued at their own pace a new development was taking place in the Ultradimension, but compared to what was occurring in the Hyperdimension it was of little importance, though it was significant enough to rattle the CPUs. The problem: Plutia. The sleepy CPU of Planeptune had suddenly started to work, which was something that the Ultradimension Histoire was rather pleased yet shocked about. This development had startled the CPUs and thus they decided to visit and find out what was making Plutia into a workaholic.

In the living room of the Basilicom were the three other CPUs of Gamindustri; Noire, Vert and Blanc, accompanying them in their visit were Neptune and Nepgear from the Hyperdimension. The Ultradimension counterparts of their friends were slightly different in when it came to clothes and bits and pieces of their personality, but apart from that there was little difference.

The Ultra Noire wore a revealing black tanktop piece with a blue belt below her breast and a big blue bow at her collar, a diamond shaped gem was fastened in the centre, the skirt was a dark blue/black colour with very thin white lines and black belt. The sleeves had puffed grey segments and black lining, above the knee dark blue stockings were held up with belts and buckles. Her boots were grey and the ribbons in her hair were dark blue.

The Ultra Vert wore a dark sea foam-teal coloured dress with puffed sleeves and black spiked cuffs at the end, thin light green straps connected from her breasts to her choker-piece around her neck. The dress covered her lower half and went between her legs, while the back part was much longer with spiked lining. A black belt with green circled pads on each hip was worn and it connected to a very light blue ribbon. Her shoes are black with pads at the toe and ballerina-like wrappings around the leg.

The Ultra Blanc wore a red dress with fold-skirt and a leafy pattern along the bottom, it had a black tank top piece with an accessory with red lining and a blue sphere in the centre with thin strings, at the top of the dress is a golden flower piece with a black strap around her waist. Over this is a white jacket with a big tassel hanging on the ends of both sleeves, her right arm has a bracelet embroidered with black and white beads. She wore a white cap with a red and pink petal pattern along with a black circled segment in the centre.

While Nepgear kept her normal attire the same her older sister, Neptune had changed her outfit completely, she was wearing a deep purple dress with lilac lining along the bottom, centre, top, and pockets, along with white spiked edging. A white, short-jacket was worn over this with a big N button, purple plug-like strings, purple lining and buckles on each shoulder sleeve. She also wore white bracelets on her wrists that had a soft spiked material and small powder blue spots in the centre.

The group were together in the living room, which was more colourful than Neptune's living room, a dark purple couch was up against the light purple wall and a table was in front of it with various materials that were used to create dolls, there was a retro game console by the TV and a table with several chairs was in one of the corners of the room. The Sun shined through the windows and showed that there wasn't a single bit of dust around, the looked to be around twenty to eleven in the late morning.

Noire, Vert and Nepgear were sitting on the couch while Neptune ran around the room after Peashy, who had stolen Neptune's pudding and laughed as the light purple haired goddess ran after her to retrieve her favourite dish. Blanc sat by the table and read her book in as much peace as she could get herself in. They were all waiting patiently for Plutia to return from Histoire's office from signing paperwork.

"Give me back my pudding, P-ko!" demanded Neptune.

"Nope! Not gonna happen!" responded Peashy as she continued to run around the room.

"C'mon! Just give it back already!"

"Come and get it!"

So Neptune continued to run after Peashy and her stolen pudding, meanwhile, Noire looked worried as she awaited Pultia's return while Vert hugged Nepgear in a way that only perverted men would enjoy being in as Nepgear's head was squished into Vert's giant bosom while she patted her head, what could be seen of it of course.

"What's taking Plutia so long to do all that paperwork?" grumbled Noire.

"Hmm? Are you worried about her, Noire?" asked Vert smugly.

"What?! No! I would never worry about anyone, I-I'm just getting sick and tired of waiting around for her to turn up, that's all!"

"So you say, but if that is the case then why did you turn up in the first place, hmm?"

"I already told you, it isn't because I'm worried or anything, I'm just here because I am the one who holds the group together, that's all."

"Yeah right, Nowa," chuckled Neptune as she ran past, still chasing Peashy for her pudding.

"I keep telling you that it's 'Noire', not 'Nowa! Idiot. How you're still a goddess bewilders me."

"That's ruff you know."

"But it is true. Your nation would have fallen apart already if it wasn't for your sister and your Histoire."

"She has a point though," commented Blanc. "For once I agree with her, your Planeptune would have decayed into nothing if it hadn't been for your Oracle, sister and those friends of yours."

"Et tu Blanc?!" Neptune pretended to have been pierced in the heart and fell to the ground dramatically while groaning.

Peashy, upon seeing Neptune apparently giving up on recovering her pudding, beamed and sat on the ground, then she grabbed a spoon and began eating Neptune's pudding. Blanc raised an eyebrow at Neptune before returning to her book, Noire looked at the scene and shook her head in disappointment, Vert, on the other hand, had let go of Nepgear and directed her attention towards Neptune who was still pretending to be dead.

"Et tu Blanc? What does that mean?" asked Vert.

Neptune quickly opened her eyes, sat up and smiled at Vert. "Oh that line? Brian taught me to say that if I ever wanted to be dramatic, apparently it was used in some sort of play or something."

"Brian … where have I heard that name before? Wait, Plutia mentioned someone called Brian, and I think some else called Angel. What an odd name that last one … Angel," said Noire.

"It isn't an odd name, I think it is a wonderful name," remarked Vert.

"Hmm, how long ago did Plutia mention them two?" asked Blanc.

"I think it was about … I'm not to sure, but it was a long while ago, perhaps several months? Maybe nearly a year ago," replied Noire.

Time ran differently between the Hyperdimension and the Ultradimension, no one knew the reason why though, a day in the Hyperdimension could add up to around six or more months in the Ultradimension and while it had been over three days since Angel seen Plutia it had been over a year or two since Plutia had set eyes on him.

"Are you thinking of something?" Vert asked Blanc while she and the rest of the group ignored Neptune pouting at Peashy, who had almost finished eating Neptune's pudding.

"I am. What if Plutia's actions have something to do with those two, or maybe even just one of them?" suggested Blanc.

Vert thought about that statement for a moment before an idea clicked in her head, causing her to smirk. Nepgear looked at the busty blonde in a confused manner, she was unsure as to why the CPU of Leanbox was smirking whilst rubbing her chin with her hand.

"Uh, Vert, are you alright?" asked Nepgear. "You're making a strange face."

"Oh I'm just thinking about something, something about what Blanc said just before; 'what if Plutia's actions have something do to with those two, or maybe even just one of them'. I have a suspicion that Plutia has a …"

"Hold on a moment, are you say that Plutia has a crush?!" exclaimed Noire.

"It is a possibility, but I would place my bets on Plutia having a crush on one of them."

"Well, if I had to guess I would say that it was Angel who Plutia has a crush on," remarked Neptune, who had rejoined the conversation after she returned from the kitchen with new pudding.

"Why would you think that it's that guy?" asked Noire.

"Cause he's just a male version of Sadie, sort of at least," replied Neptune.

Noire and Vert shivered at the thought of a male Iris Heart wandering about in the Hyperdimension alongside the other goddesses, but then a though struck Noire as she thought about the sadistic male. "Hey, Neptune, despite somewhat knowing what those two look like from the dolls that Plutia created, what exactly are they like?"

"Well, Angel is just a male Sadie and I also heard from Iffy that he's a bit of a pervert, especially when it comes to a woman's chest. Apart from that he's rather cold and distant, but he got along with Plutie rather quickly, guess the quiet sadistic pervert and the sadistic sleepy doll making girl types get along well."

Everyone couldn't agree with that last statement, not to mention Blanc's displeasure about the fact that Angel was a pervert who liked big chests, Vert found it amusing to no end though, Noire merely shook her head.

"Well that's Angel, but what about Brian?" asked Noire. "We don't really know much about him."

"Ooooo, he's rather different. For a start he's a different type of human; an Ancient, plus he can be rude and mean as he prefers people to hate him as long as they fear him, so he isn't the best person to have around while having a party, he'd probably try to burn the place down. He always frowns at anything at anyone, but I've noticed that he's taken an interest in Blanny-Blanny-Bii."

"I think you mean Blanc, sis," commented Nepgear.

"I prefer the nickname, it sounds cooler and it would make her angry like a murderous psychopath. Anyway, I wonder what will happen to the two of them while they're in Lowee … eheheheheheh." Neptune had a mischievous grin on her face as she said the last part.

"Um, Neptune, I don't think I understand what you are trying to say," said Nepgear.

"Oh nothing, my dear sister, nothing at all, but we'll see what happens when we get back." Yet again her troll face was activated.

"What are they doing in Lowee?" asked Blanc. "Huh, it sounds weird asking that despite it all happening in another dimension."

"Well, since Brian destroyed a part of my Basilicom and some of the area around it during a fight he decided to travel to the other countries and took Angel with him, their first stop is Lowee, I ain't sure where they're heading next though."

As Noire, Vert and Blanc gave Neptune a confused stare as she mentioned about the destruction that was caused they all heard the sounds of footsteps coming from down the hallway, it sounded soft as no traces of heavy boots or shoes could be heard, then light humming was heard and they realised that it was Plutia returning from signing all of the paperwork that Histoire had in her office. Once Plutia entered the living room she was greeted with the smiles of the other goddesses.

"Oh, hellllooooo," Plutia greeted the others in her droopy way.

"Hi there Pultie, how's it hanging?" asked Neptune as she waved and walked up to her friend.

"I'm fiiine Neppy, are you here to play?" responded Plutia.

"Yep! We're here to party with ya till the sun goes down and the moon rises!"

"That is your excuse, Neptune," sighed Noire. "I'm only here to see what's wrong with Plutia."

"Wrong with me? Am I unwell?" asked Plutia.

"You were working before, that is surprising," remarked Vert. "In fact, you have been working almost as hard as the rest of us for the last month and a half. Since you always spent your time sleeping, making new dolls or visit us and Neptune we have gotten a little bit … concerned."

"You lot working hard?" exclaimed Noire upon hearing the statement. "I am the only one who works hard around here."

"And that's why you have no friends," commented Neptune with a big smirk.

"I-I do have friends thank you so very much!" yelled Noire in response, causing Neptune to chuckle involuntarily.

"Welllll, I admit that I haven't been doing much lately except for signing papers, plus I've been getting sleepier and more sleepier everyday," said Plutia thoughtfully. "I'm not sure why I'm doing work, but it feels like my mind is telling me to do it."

"Hmm … excuse me Plutia, but have you been having any sort of weird feeling inside you for a while?" asked Vert.

"Huh? I guess soooo, whenever I think about my friends I always become happy, but when I start thinking about one of my friends I feel sort of dizzy in the head, my heartbeat gets stronger and then I would sometimes start daydreaming and loose concentration on what I'm doing. Is that normal?"

Vert gave a light chuckle at the question. "It is, but only if you have romantic feelings for someone."

"Romantic feelings? I have romantic feelings? I guess that could be a reason."

"So then, who are you thinking about when you begin to feel all weird?" asked Blanc.

"Um, Angel I think," replied Plutia. Suddenly she began to smile and appeared to be daydreaming, a slight blush grew on her cheeks.

"I knew it, I knew that our Plutie had fallen for the only sadistic masochist male that I know of," said Neptune proudly.

"I don't think that's something to be proud of, Neptune," sighed Noire. The tsundere goddess turned her gaze towards various dolls that occupied a portion of the room, the dolls were on, and in, a cupboard that stood around six ft high and had all sorts of dolls, all of them were copies of her friends. When Noire first met Plutia she had been amazed at the girl's skills at doll making, Plutia would make them all chibi-like and thus when the two were introduced Plutia became eager to make a doll of Noire, and after it had been completed the tsundere had been utterly amazed, Noire still had the doll somewhere in her room back in Lastation.

Of course, Plutia didn't just make dolls of her friends just for fun as most other people would believe, it turned out that the sleepy goddess also made dolls to relieve all of the stress that she gathered during the day, or even week. Noire learned about it the hard way when she stumbled upon Plutia one day.

* * *

 _Hello there, Plutia, how are… what the heck are you doing?" asked Noire as she walked into Plutia's living room one day. "Why are you looking, er, uneasy?"_

 _Sitting on the couch was Plutia who seemed rather ticked off, in fact she looked so unamused that her sadist personality was starting to take affect, Noire could sense it as she felt shivers go down her spine, it also appeared that Plutia had not noticed Noire's entrance. The sleepy sadistic goddess was glaring at a doll she was making, it looked like no one she recognised but as soon as Plutia had made the finishing touches, by putting hair on it and different colours on the clothes, she took the doll and threw it on the ground before stomping on it ferociously, causing Noire to shiver uncontrollably as Plutia unleashed her inner rage against the unfortunate doll._

 _It was at that moment when Noire learned that Plutia was just as scary in her human form opposed to her in HDD. Upon seeing the scene unfold before her Noire's brain was quick to forward the motion to make a run for it, this was accepted by her legs which made her sprint out of the living room and close the door behind her before she continued to get away from Plutia's wrath. Fortunately for the goddess of Lastation the sadist of Planeptune was too distracted by her doll crushing moment to care about someone entering and quickly leaving the room, it was for the best that Noire left in a hurry or else Plutia would have noticed her and then would have instrumented a stress relief regime that involved… some forms of torture that only hardcore Romans and pissed off medieval people would enjoy._

 _Noire stopped running as soon as she had reached the elevator and closed the door behind her, she panted for air and leaned against the glass panels, unsure about what to do next. But Noire did know of one thing: stay away from Plutia whenever she is feeling 'displeased' in human form, and that the dolls she makes aren't all for show and tell._

* * *

Noire got a chilly feeling that went through all her nerves when she remembered that event, it had haunted her memory everyday since but she was glad that she wasn't in the place of the doll or else there would have been no ruler for Lastation at all, leaving it open for civil unrest and whatnot as people attempt to lay claim to the country and be titled the new CPU. Noire would not have had any of that happen to her country and was determined to stay alive.

There were many different dolls along the shelves, all of them were of Plutia's friends, a few were the same but had a different style to it as in different clothing and hair styles, but what stood out in the whole group of dolls were a few who were male, from what Noire could remember those were Angel and Brian. The two of them could be told apart due to their hairstyle and different clothing, but what had gotten her attention was two of the dolls, one of them had a sadistic look to his face while the other one had flaring blue eyes and had a blue colour around him, Angel was the first doll while Brian was the second one. Noire wasn't quite sure why Brian's doll had a bluish look to it or why his eyes were flaring blue but the tsundere decided not to ask about it yet, her attention had been directed towards a certain fairy who had entered the room.

Histoire had entered the room, well, a smaller and more high pitched version of Histoire had entered the room, thus earning her the name of 'Mini-Histy' from Neptune. She was floating by the doorway and was watching Plutia's reaction towards Angel's name.

"So that's the reason why she has been working hard lately," Histoire muttered to herself.

"Hmm? What do you mean?" asked Nepgear as she walked up and stood next to the fairy tome.

"I mean that Plutia's subconscious has been telling her to work so she could get some form of distraction to get the feelings out of her mind," explained Histoire. "That would explain all the growing hard work she has been doing for the last month and a half."

"So, Plutia, in what way do you like Angel?" asked Neptune with a smug look.

"Um, I know that I like him but that's about it," responded Plutia. "Should I tell him?"

"I think it would be best to go and see him," said Blanc. "You have been holding in those feelings for a while now so it would be best to tell him. Also, from what I have read about these sort of romances the one who is going to confess usually presents a gift of some sort beforehand, maybe even some poetry."

"What type of books have you been reading?" asked Vert with a concerned face.

"Is it wrong to read about certain things, Thunder Tits?" responded Blanc with a glare.

"There should be a limit about what one should have access to read you know, perhaps some games would be best for you."

"You can have your damn BL games for yourself, I ain't getting near them!"

"Huh… a present, hmm…" Plutia mumbled to herself.

Suddenly everyone in the room got a shiver down their spines as Plutia mumbled to herself, as everyone looked over towards Plutia they saw her and her sadist appearance upon her face, her hands were rubbing together and a dark feeling was flowing from her, she also appeared to be deep in thought. As everyone started to back off a flash of light engulfed Plutia and after it disappeared Iris Heart was standing where the sleepy goddess once stood.

"Um… Sadie? What are you doing?" asked Neptune worrisomely.

"Oh nothing for you to worry about, my dear Neppy, I just thought of a present for my beloved Angie, I'm sure he'll enjoy it… oh yes he will," replied Iris Heart with a gleeful look in her eyes.

"Er, does this present involve you being naked and wrapping yourself in ribbons?"

"No, but that will now be my backup plan, thanks."

Iris Heart then left the room for the balcony, which wasn't very far away from the room, leaving everyone else rather worried about what the goddess of the Ultra Planeptune was going to give Angel as a present. Despite feeling really unsafe around the sadistic CPU Neptune decided to follow her outside to the balcony where she found her friend standing in the middle of the balcony, overlooking the city below.

"Um, Sadie, are you alright?" asked Neptune as she took a look at Iris Heart's face, it was filled with uncertainty and deep thought.

Hmm? I'm fine, though if you're offering your services to me you better beg for it," replied Iris Heart.

"Hold your horses there, I'm just here to check up on you! By the way, what are you going to give Angie?"

Iris Heart then put her mouth next to Neptune's ear and whispered what she wanted to give to Angel, after hearing it Neptune looked at Iris Heart with a serious face. "You do realise that those are very rare around in this dimension, don't you?"

"Of course I do, but I have my motives," replied Iris Heart. "Besides, I know that he will enjoy it."

Neptune nodded before a flash of light surrounded her and out emerged Purple Heart with a heart-warming smile directed towards Iris Heart. "Very well then, I will help you look for one."

"I would have preferred for you to have begged for the chance to help me, but I will make an exception in this case."

As the two goddesses flew into the air to find whatever Iris Heart had planned to give to Angel the rest of the group felt relieved that the sadist was gone, yet they were also worried about what the planned gift was as well. Nepgear felt a little bit depressed that she had been left behind while her sister had gone off with Iris Heart, Vert sensed this and was quick to catch the CPU Candidate in another tight hug.

"Goodness?! Um, Vert, I'm having trouble breathing," Nepgear attempted to reason with the busty goddess, but to no avail as her words came out muffled and disorientated.

The hugging spectacle took everyone's minds off the present issue, yet still deep down they all wondered what Iris Heart, CPU of Ultra Planeptune, had in store for the one she deeply cared about. Histoire, on the other hand, was more concerned about one thing.

"Now that Plutis knows the problem, she isn't going to do any more work now is she?" Histoire grumbled to herself.

* * *

 **A/N: This chapter is shorter compared to a few of the previous ones but I decided to get this one out of the way, guess what present Plutia/Iris Heart is planning to give to poor ol' Angel. I've also been distracted by Hyperdimension Neptunia mods for Civ 5, don't judge me, and once I get enough money I'm going to get distracted by Megatagmension Blanc + Nepune vs Zombies. Anyway, leave a review or send a message if you want to ask something or have any ideas for this story and I'll see ya all in the next chapter.**


	31. Big Brother

**Chapter 30: Big Brother**

As events were set into motion and could not be undone a young man stood in front of a mirror in a guest bedroom, he held a throwing knife by his chin, which was covered in foam along with the rest of his lower face, and a determined look was on in his eyes as he lowered the knife onto his chin and began the slow process of shaving. Shaving with a throwing knife wasn't his first choice but found that it was more convenient to use one instead of using his sword, plus the Basilicom wasn't supplied with any sort of shaving cream or other shaving utensils, therefore Brian was was forced to search for soap to apply to his face and then use one of his few remaining throwing knives to get the job done.

 _This is harder than I thought, glad no one is here to distract me. Oh damn, I just raised an event flag didn't I? Curse my bad luck to the pits of Pluto!_

Right in cue there was a knock on the door and a voice which sounded like Angel said, "Hey, you awake in there yet?"

Brian cursed silently his bad luck once again, he was using the knife to shave the hair under his chin and wanted to continue with his job, but with a silent sigh he put lowered the knife and walked over to the door, when he opened it he was staring not only at Angel but also Blanc who stood next to the sadist. The Ancient was surprised to see Blanc there but the CPU of Lowee was even more surprised, or rather shocked, to see Brian with soap all over his lower face and a knife in his right hand.

"What is it? I'm busy," said Brian with a grumpy tone.

"Do you even know what the time is?" asked Angel.

"Err, no. What is it then?"

"Half past eleven," replied Blanc. "Almost mid-day and you missed breakfast."

"Did I? Oh well, I'll find something to eat later for lunch. Was there anything else you two needed from me before I shut the door in your faces and continue to shave my face?"

"Yes, there is one last thing," said Blanc in a serious tone. "I need to talk to you about Rom and Ram."

Brian stiffened as he heard their names, he hadn't been on the best of terms with the twins since last night when he came close to attacking them, fortunately for him Blanc hadn't killed him but instead forgave him after he apologised and walked away, but he could sense that there was a bit of mistrust embedded within her. Plus he remembered that Blanc wanted to talk to him in the morning about something, perhaps it was him getting back on good terms with Rom and Ram?

"Can it wait please? I gotta finish shaving my face before I go and do anything."

Blanc nodded and Brian closed the door, he could hear some footsteps walking away from the door and down the hallway, it sounded heavier than Blanc's footsteps so Brian reasoned – correctly – that it was Angel, probably looking for the training facilities again so he could practice some new moves or whatnot. As Brian returned to shaving with his throwing knife he could only wonder what Blanc wanted to talk to him about that concerned the twins.

* * *

"So what is it that you need to talk to me about Rom and Ram?" asked Brian as he and Blanc walked down the various hallways towards a flight of stairs.

"You need to get along with Rom and Ram, the incident last night shook their nerves and they haven't been talking about you, plus they were nervous during breakfast as if they were afraid that you would turn up," replied Blanc. "Therefore, I intend for you and my sisters to get along so there can be no further conflicts from any of you."

"I see. Well then, I suppose I can go along with whatever plan you have installed so I can get along with Rom and Ram. So, what's the plan?"

"First things first, both of us are going to talk to Rom and Ram, then we'll see what happens afterwards, but you better be polite to them or you'll have to answer to me."

Brian could feel the anger in her voice as she said the last part, he knew that if he wanted to stay alive to visit the rest of Gamindustri then he would have to make sure that he didn't annoy Blanc, but he did admit to himself that he didn't mind the aggressiveness that she displayed both in her human form and in HDD, he rather liked both forms. If he had to choose a favourite he wouldn't be able to decide. Either way she would not hesitate to kill him in either form if he brought harm to her younger sisters.

As the two of them walked up the stairs and walked down another hallway Brian noticed that his left hand was twitching, it had been a while since it did that he realised. The reason it was twitching was that he and Blanc were soon to approach Rom and Ram's room and he was unsure about how to act around them. When they arrived outside of their room Blanc was prepared to open the door before she looked back at Brian.

"Leave the talking to me, speak only when they ask you a question, got it?"

Brian nodded in response and the door was opened to reveal Rom laying on her bed whilst reading a picture book while Ram was on the floor drawing a picture of her and Rom together in bright coloured crayon. Of the two Ram was the first to notice Blanc and Brian enter their room and jumped to attention.

"Oh, hey there Blanc… wait, why is _he_ here?"

Ram glared at Brian, who responded by sighing and looking away, Blanc looked at Ram and too sighed. "Ram, he is the reason why I am here, both you and Rom have to get along with him if his stay here is to pass by with peace, plus he wants to get along with you and Rom."

Rom looked at Brian with a slightly frightened look on her face as she stared at the Ancient, he took a quick glance at the young girl and caused her to try and hide behind her book. Ram glared at Brian before returning her gaze towards her older sister.

"Why should we get along with him? He tried to attack us!"

"While that was unorthodox of him you did push him over the edge, but now he said that he is going to make up for it and play with you or do anything you wish."

Brian looked at Blanc with a worried look. "Um, I didn't say that though."

Blanc looked up at Brian with a glaring look that silenced him, then she looked back at Rom and Ram, who were now interested in where the conversation was heading towards, Brian began to dread what Blanc was talking to her younger sisters about as he had been forced to usher out of their room and the door was closed until he was allowed back in. It took a few minutes of waiting before the door opened and Blanc's head poked out.

"They're ready to talk to you," Blanc informed him.

Brian nodded and walked through the door to see Rom and Ram standing side-by-side, they were both looking at him and seemed rather nervous. Brian too was nervous as his left hand twitched, this did not escape the notice of Blanc and she began to worry about the whole situation. Brian decided to break the ice by speaking first.

"Well, how are you two?" he asked them politely. He wasn't polite by nature and found it hard to do so.

"I… I'm alright," replied Rom nervously.

Ram didn't say anything but shrugged instead, which wasn't much of an answer. Sighing, Brian turned around towards Blanc and looked at her with a confused face, she read it as "What the hell am I supposed to do now?" and thus she walked up to the poor man and began to whisper in his ear.

"Just be polite to them and if they want to do something you must go along with them, also you can ask if they want to read or draw as well, just remember this though: if they get injured in any form I will hold you responsible, got it?"

Brian nodded quickly, causing Blanc to slightly smile. "Very good then, I'll take my leave and hope for the best." The CPU of Lowee then left the room and closed the door behind her, leaving Brian, Rom and Ram to themselves, the atmosphere of the room was left uncertain.

"So, is there anything that you two want to do?" asked Brian.

"Let's see if you're any good at drawing," responded Ram as she picked up a few crayons and a piece of paper, she then led Brian to the centre of the room and the three of them sat down and began to draw on their pieces of paper.

Brian wasn't confident when it came to drawing as he could only draw the basic stick man, a bad house with crude trees, hills and mutant cockatoos who stood almost as high as a human and could wield weapons in battle, it was clear that he wasn't an artist by nature. He was sure that the CPU twins would, and could, easily out-draw him in any circumstances, in fact he remembered back during his tine on Earth he had once taken part in an art contest alongside Angel and a whole heap of kids. The winner was a little annoying kid with a broken arm who was younger than everyone else, Brian's art piece was found to be rather pathetic and Angel's wasn't even judged due to it being 'too graphical', no one knew what Angel had decided to draw for the event but Brian could guess that it wasn't kid friendly.

From the glances he could take at their work it looked as if Rom and Ram were far better at drawing than most people he's seen in his life, true they weren't a Bob Ross when it came to art but they were better than some people at least, especially compared to Brian. The Ancient couldn't see what Rom and Ram were actually drawing though as the two of them hid their drawings from his sight, yet he did catch Rom glancing at him from time to time and whenever he looked at her when she glanced at him the quiet CPU Candidate would always look away quickly back to her drawing.

After fifteen minutes of drawing Rom and Ram looked up and were holding their pieces of 'art'. "Times up!" exclaimed Ram. "C'mon, dummy, show us what you got."

"Alright, alright, no need to be so rude or hasty," groaned Brian as he lifted up his picture and held it up for the twins to gaze at.

Brian drew a picture of a group of his mutant cockatoos in different sorts of steel and leather armour, all carried swords, axes, spears and bows, they were situated on a grassy field with various trees and a hill in the background. Altogether it wasn't bad but it looked like it had been created by a fourth grader.

"Huh, what the heck are those supposed to be?" asked Ram as she pointed at the mutant cockatoos.

"Mutant birds, I ain't much of an artist," replied Brian as he put the picture back on the ground. "Alright then, who's next?"

"I'll go," said Ram as she held up her picture. It was a picture of their room and everything in it except for the people, it looked rather better than what Brian imagined that Ram would originally draw, it was rather messy but he didn't expect better from her. The picture included the large bed and the bookshelves that were occupied by various different picture books and whatnot, then there was the carpet and all the different pictures that were hung up on the wall. It looked alright thought Brian.

"My turn," said Rom as she held her picture up for Ram and Brian to see. It was a surprising one and it was not what Brian had expected from the young girl: it was a drawing of Rom, Ram and Brian together, the three of them looked happy as the twins cuddled Brian's arms. Despite it being drawn by someone so young it looked the best out of the three. Rom looked at Brian and smiled.

"I drew it because I want us to get along, I want me and Ram to be friends with you," explained Rom as she stared at Brian. "I don't think you're a bad person, no matter what people say. I think you're cool, just like Blanc."

The last of the Ancients could only look back at the young CPU Candidate and to their amazement he smiled brightly and patted Rom with his left hand, to see him smile was rare but to see him smiling like this was a one time moment. Rom giggled as he continued to pat her head gently, causing Ram to pout at him.

"Hey, I want to be patted. Pat me dummy!" pouted Ram.

"Alright, alright," responded Brian as he turned his attention to Ram and patted her on the head gently with his right hand. Seeing the two of them look happy made him smile, it looked like any hard feelings between them had evaporated already, and that pleased the young man.

Once he removed his hands from their heads they still remained perky and happy, Rom stood up and walked over to Brian, presenting her drawing to him with a nervous smile. "You can have it if you want to, if you like it. Do you like it?"

Brian took the drawing from Rom and gazed at it before returning his gaze to Rom. "Yes, of course I like it, this picture makes me happy and I thank you for that. It makes it look like I have two little sisters who care about me, I always wanted a sibling that cared about me and this drawing gives me that longing feeling. Thank you, Rom. I hope we do get along well like brother and sister."

Brian looked happily at Rom, who could only look back shyly. Ram, on the other hand, was full of energy and while Rom and Brian were distracted by the drawing Ram had stood up and was waiting impatiently for the two of them to have their touching moment end. Finally, once Brian had stopped talking Ram walked over to him and latched herself onto his back, propelling herself behind his neck and thus expected a piggyback from him, much to his distaste.

"Er, are you expecting a piggyback somewhere, Ram?" asked Brian.

"Yeah, can you take us outside and let us look around the place for a while?" responded Ram with a request.

"I see no reason why not. Let's just see Blanc first alright? Plus I gotta get Rom's picture to a safe place before I forget about it."

"Fine then, but I'm staying like this."

"Very well then. Rom, are you coming with us?"

Rom nodded in response. "Alright, let's get going."

* * *

Brian walked down the paved streets of Lowee with Rom and Ram on his shoulders, Rom had a hand clutched around his head to stable her balance while Ram would wave her arms around for no apparent reason, their destination: the amusement park. Ironically it was the same amusement park that Rom and Ram had once been captured at by a certain robotic paedophile and a green haired girl with a lead pipe, but ever since that day the park had been sold to new owners who were determined to not allow that sort of thing to happen again and so security was beefed up and a rule was enacted that forbade robots from entering the amusement park grounds. Although there were also new rides that had been built the main attraction for people that were supposedly Rom and Ram's age were collecting coins, jumping down green pipes and riding the tortoise.

"Can't you walk a little faster?" asked Ram who was getting impatient.

"If I run then you will fall off, so no," replied Brian. "Besides, we're almost there anyway."

After Brian had returned to his room and placed Rom's drawing on the desk that was situated next to his bed he and the twins had approached Blanc's room to tell her about visiting the local area for fun and games, at first Blanc was surprised at how fast Brian had been reconciled with Rom and Ram and was even more surprised about what they were asking. It didn't take long for Blanc to agree to their request but before they could go she wanted to talk to Brian about something important.

* * *

" _Very well, be back before sunset," said Blanc as she gave the all clear nod to the three people standing before her. "You two get ready to go, I want to talk to Brian beforehand though."_

" _Did he do something wrong?" asked Ram, she looked surprisingly concerned for the young man._

" _No, I just want to talk to him that concerns a different matter. Don't worry about him, he'll be fine."_

 _Rom and Ram nodded and both waved goodbye to Brian before leaving Blanc's room and headed towards the main entrance. After they left Blanc looked at Brian with a serious face expression. "While you were with Rom and Ram I received a call from Histoire, apparently she has been doing some research into your race per your request and has found some information. If you want to talk to her I can get her up on the computer for you."_

" _Sure, I'll talk to her. Am I guessing correctly that you will be staying here and listening to whatever Histoire has to say?"_

 _Blanc nodded, causing Brian to sigh. "Would you prefer if I left instead?" asked Blanc._

" _Well, I don't really mind if you stay and listen, it's your choice in the end."_

 _It didn't take long for Blanc to get her computer on and ready for the talk between Brian and Histoire, once the video chat had been established Brian was seated on a spare chair next to Blanc and both waited for Histoire to pick up. While they waited Blanc took a quick glance at the young man next to her and realised how short he could be while sitting on a chair compared to standing up, it seemed that his height was contributed by his legs more than his actual body, he would also slouch and then sit straight up at random times. Eventually Histoire answered the call and her face appeared on the screen, standing next to her was, surprisingly, IF._

" _Good morning, well, late morning I suppose," greeted Histoire._

" _Hey there Blanc and Brian," said IF. "Glad to see that Blanc hasn't killed you."_

" _Yeah, I'm glad as well," responded Brian with a slight chuckle. "Anyway, how are you, IF?"_

" _I've been better, yet I've been worse I suppose. Things haven't been as peaceful over here since you left."_

" _Really? Why is that?"_

" _It's because of social media. That girl you threatened, that Abnes girl, has been holding rallies all throughout Planeptune and has been using your title of Shadow Walker as a name that would be used by mothers to scare their children, and some are believing in her words and Share are beginning to drop. While it's been a hard time in trying to suppress these rallies I've also gotten wind of something else: sightings of one of the Dark Captains, the one with the hood and longsword."_

" _You mean Agandur's Right Hand, that's the one who nearly killed me."_

" _Yeah, that's the guy. Anyway, he's been sighed near Haruno Village a few times, unfortunately that's all I know that is going on, apart from that there isn't anything else to tell."_

" _Very well then, good luck with maintaining order, you'll need all the luck you can get."_

 _IF nodded in response, leaving time for Histoire to finally talk. "Brian, as you requested I did some research into the Ancients via my tome and books that I could find from the local library. Unfortunately there wasn't much, not even my tome has a lot to say about the Ancients, even the ones I found in the library were just the same as the books you encountered in Blanc's library."_

" _I guess Blanc told you about my book searching then. Well, did you find anything at all?"_

" _Just one peculiar thing that you might find interesting, I managed to find this in my tome. It's about the name of Shadow Walker, apparently it translates to 'Death Bringer' or 'Doom Bringer'."_

 _Brian and Blanc were surprised when they heard about that. "Interesting though, to think that I am also called Death or Doom Bringer, makes sense after seeing what I've done so far."_

" _You shouldn't define yourself just because of a title that some long dead people gave to you through a prophecy, instead define yourself through the way you act around people," said Blanc._

 _The last Ancient looked at Blanc and smiled, her words had moved him it seemed. "That sounds rather wise coming from you."_

" _I'd have you know that I've been around for a very long time, I know many things that are wise, or are supposed to be wise at least."_

 _As Brian chuckled his thought were mingled with trying to understand why the Ancients called him a 'Death Bringer' and wondered if any others had been called that as well, plus he was also thinking whether Blanc was intelligent or just showing off, then there was his thoughts on Rom and Ram, who were probably waiting impatiently for him._

* * *

As Brian continued to walk down the street with the twins on his shoulders he could finally see the amusement park in sight, but his quick glances told his mind that some of the citizens of Lowee were eyeing him suspiciously, it was a possibility that they had watched Abnes' rallied on the internet or on the news. Now that the people were seeing him alongside the CPU Candidates of Lowee they could come to two conclusion; either he has befriended the Twins of Lowee and isn't a bad guy after all, or they will also conclude that the CPUs are unwise to place their trust in a young man who frowns all of the time and has caused severe destruction in Planeptune.

Once they managed to get into the amusement park Rom and Ram began to enjoy themselves to the fullest and dragged Brian along with them everywhere, they first went on a roller-coaster due to Ram betting that Brian wouldn't be able to hold the contents of his stomach in for the whole ride, to which he said boastfully "Challenge accepted!". Brian won the bet and got… nothing at all, unsurprisingly, since they didn't bet with items or anything as a matter of fact. For the next few hours afterwards Brian watched over the twins as they rode on a tortoise, jumped through the green pipes and ended up in other places in the park, then they stopped for a while to rest their legs, heads and stomachs (for one of them at least).

"That'll be 30 credits," said a young woman by a glass counter that was filled all manner of sweets that ranged from pudding, cakes, ice cream and other sugary delights.

Brian handed over the credits and took hold of three vanilla flavoured ice creams in small flat bottom cones, two of the ice creams were covered in chocolate sprinkles, he then walked over to a small wooden table nearby where Rom and Ram were sitting by, they looked tired and Rom has slumped over the table and appeared to be nearly asleep. When he stood by the table Ram looked up and her eyes opened wide when she saw the sugar delights in his hands.

"Awesome! Which one is mine?"

"You can have one of the two that have chocolate sprinkles on them," replied Brian as he put the ice creams down on the table.

Ram took one of the sprinkled ice creams and began to devour it like a ravenous animal, Rom on the other hand appeared to be actually asleep. This didn't surprise Brian at all since the three of them had been walking and running around the amusement park for a while now, it was past five pm already. As Brian sat down next to Rom to gently wake her up the shy CPU Candidate moved about in her sleep and leaned on Brian, she rested her head on his chest and snuggled close to him, thus he was forced to wrap his left arm around her. She murmured in her sleep and a small smile appeared on her face, Brian found it rather cute as he ate his ice cream with his free hand.

"The amusement park will be closing soon," Brian informed Ram as she began to eat the cone. "We'll have to leave in a few minutes."

"Do we have to leave already?" pouted Ram. "Why can't we just convince the people who run the place to let us play on the rides for a little while longer? Don't people say that rules are meant to be broken?"

"Not necessarily, rules can be broken but only in certain circumstances, and I cannot afford to break any rules, not now not ever. Besides, I told Blanc that I would get us back to the Basilicom before sunset, and that is approaching fast. Once you've eaten up the last of your ice cream we'll be leaving."

"What about Rom's ice cream? Can I eat that or are you going to save it for her later?"

"I'll try to save it for later, but if it starts melting then you can eat it, I'll just have to see what the Basilicom has to offer."

As soon as Ram and Brian were done eating their ice cream they stood up and walked out of the amusement park, Brian was forced to carry Rom all the way back to the Basilicom, her head rested below his left shoulder and he had his arms around her legs, back and neck, she continued to murmur in her sleep and would often snuggle more tightly against Brian. In the end he didn't mind, he just wanted Rom to have peace and quiet. By the time they got back to the Basilicom Rom's ice cream had begun to melt and thus Ram ate it. When they made it inside the group were met by Blanc, who could only smile as she saw the position Brian was in. Angel was nowhere to be seen.

"Having fun holding her?" she asked him with a smirk.

"I haven't done this sort of thing before," replied Brian.

"You should start getting used to it then. How was your time outside, Ram?"

"I enjoyed it, we had lads of fun!" exclaimed Ram.

"I'm glad. By the way, dinner is being prepared so you might want to wake Rom up beforehand so she doesn't go to sleep while eating."

"Alright then. By the way, where's Angel?" asked Brian.

"I think he's been training all day, last I saw him he was trying to use some sort of combat move called 'Darkside', I'm not sure how he's going but we'll see eventually."

Brian nodded and he and Ram headed straight for the twin's room to wake Rom up in a friendly environment, then they were to prepare for dinner, and finally they would head to bed. However, Brian did not, nor could not, imagine the situation he would find himself when it came to bedtime, especially when it concerned Rom and Ram.

* * *

"C'mon, read to us!" demanded Ram.

"Please read to us," Rom requested more politely than her twin sister.

Rom and Ram were 'requesting' for Brian to read to them before they went to sleep for the night, Ram was pulling on Brian's right arm while Rom was standing behind Ram with a face that would make hearts melt. Brian, in the end, found it hard to refuse the two of them and thus he was forced out of his room, while wearing his black pyjamas, and was marched over to Rom and Ram's room where he was made to sit in the middle of their bed and wait for them to pick a book for him to read to them.

"Where's that book he kept for Blanc to read to us?" Ram asked Rom. "You know, the one about the plumber and his wacky adventures."

"I think it might be in this large pile over here," replied Rom as she walked over to a pile of books and began to sort through them.

The twins were wearing a matching pair of dress-like pyjamas that were similar to the dresses that they wore underneath their jackets, Rom wore blue while Ram wore a pinkish-red. Eventually the twins found what they were looking for, 'The Adventurers of the Plumber', on the front cover was a picture of a small man with a big head, nose and moustache along with a bright red hat and clothes, there was also a blue part to the outfit as well. With the book back in their possession Rom and Ram climbed into their bed on either side of Brian and gave him the book to read to them. He looked at the title and the cover and immediately thought of a certain Italian plumber saying "It's-a-me, Mario!".

"Alright then, where do you want me to start?" asked Brian.

"Chapter one, then read till we fall asleep," responded Ram as she got comfortable next to Brian by clutching his left arm, Rom did the same to his right arm. It was safe to say that the twins trusted Brian as much as their older sister.

"Um, Brian, can I ask you something?" Rom asked him.

"Sure, anything you want," came the reply.

"Ok then… er, can I call you big brother?"

Brian looked at Rom with a puzzled expression. "Big brother? What for?"

"Well… you've been kind to us all day and haven't even complained about it, plus I remember this morning that you said you felt lonely about not having a younger sibling for you to care about. So I thought that I could be a younger sister for you."

"That sounds like a cool idea," commented Ram. "I'll call you big brother as well."

"Don't do it for my sake," sighed Brian. He wasn't sure where they get this weird ideas from.

"I wouldn't mind having you as my proper big brother," said Ram honestly. "I think you're awesome!"

Rom nodded. "Me too."

The twins then cuddled up closer to Brian, making him feel a little bit uncomfortable, he had never got used to too much physical contact with other people and despite his best attempts at getting used to it he knew deep down he might never get over it, but because of Rom and Ram he had begun to get over it a tiny bit more than he had over the last few years.

"I better start reading the book. Alright then …"

As Brian read the book from beginning to end the twins fell asleep on his arms, both still clutched their chosen arms tightly and once Brian had finished reading he noticed two things: one, the twins were asleep and two, they were still clutching his arms, preventing him from moving. With a heavy sigh he did the only thing he could do: go to sleep. This was how Blanc found him during the night when she realised that her guest hadn't returned to his room, she entered Rom and Ram's room to find her younger sisters clutching onto Brian while the young man slept between them on top of the bed covers and still held onto the book. With a gentle smile Blanc retrieved a white blanket and placed it on Brian to keep him warm. As she turned around to head back to her room she heard her younger sister talking in their sleep.

"Big... brother," murmured Rom softly in her sleep.

"Dummy... big brother," murmured Ram in a quiet tone.

Blanc could only chuckle as she heard those words, it seemed to her that Rom and Ram had managed to get Brian to be their 'big brother', whether he agreed to it or not. "Good night, Rom, Ram and Brian," said Blanc quietly as she left the room. "I'll see you three in the morning."

* * *

 **A/N: I just had to have a Rom and Ram chapter in this fanfic, I just had to, if given the choice I probably would have them as little sisters. Just a heads up; I'm going to raise the rating of the fanfic because of the next chapter, but I'll only do that once I release said chapter. What will you expect from the next chapter now? Try and guess if you can. Anyway, see ya later readers.**


	32. The Barbarian Prince

**Chapter 31: The Barbarian Prince**

The morning dawned over Gamindustri, and as the Sun glowed brightly in the early morning sky with the clouds flying in small clusters there was a small uproar in an abandoned industrial factory on the outskirts of Lastation, the uproar came from a heavily armoured man wielding a war-hammer. Lothar the Bloodthirsty was grumpy, incredibly grumpy. Not one of the Dark Followers could understand why he was even more grumpier than usual, most times he would swing his mighty weapon around and smash up a few broken machinery or maybe even punch a few walls until they fell apart, but it was different this time, this time he had more anger in his swings and a more ferocious temper.

No one was sure what was going on inside the man's mind, but they all decided that they would rather not ask him about anything, the last time someone asked him something he found the question to be too stupid to handle and his answer was to hang the unfortunate Dark Follower upside down from the rooftop by a rope for two hours. It made a clear message to the remaining Dark Followers: never speak to Lothar unless it is absolutely necessary, and even then there was a small chance that Lothar would attempt to kill them, and perhaps even succeed.

In what was once a control room for all of the machinery in the factory stood two Dark Followers, both looked to have once been adventurers as they wore their usual casual clothes underneath small pieces of armour, one had a black cloak while the other had a dark purple coat, the one who wore the black cloak had white hair while the other had light orange hair. The two of them were standing in the former control room, which was filled with rusted metal, leavers and terminals, they both were staring through the shattered glass window down at the bottom level where most of the machinery was stationed, there they saw Lothar destroying machine after machine in a fit of rage.

"Why is he doing that for?" asked the white haired man. "It makes little sense to me."

"It is for the best that we don't inquire about it," replied the orange haired man. "Remember what happened to Tony?"

The white haired man shuddered as he remembered how Tony had been hung up from the rooftop by a rope for two hours, it was something that no one wanted to go through. "Yeah, I remember that alright, I had heard that this Dark Captain was a lot more… feisty than the others. Tell me again why we joined up with them?"

"We joined up with them because this world will be a better place without those damn Goddesses flying around and being all high an' mighty, it just makes me sick, it's as if they've forgotten everything about the Console War. And I know that I'm not the only one who thinks the same."

"But from looking at what's going on aren't we going to be starting a war?"

"If war will bring down the Goddesses then so be it. Come on, let's get out of here before that bloodthirsty man looks up and sees us looking at him."

The white haired man nodded and the two of them left the control room, leaving an angry Dark Captain along on the lower level with broken and rusted machinery. Lothar had removed his fur cloak and his helmet, revealing his spiky black hair along with his metal and leather armoured body, arms and legs, he had a grim expression upon his face, his eyes filled with anger and, surprisingly, sadness. After he swung his war-hammer into the hall with the pointed edge he looked out of the cracked windows and felt… sad. Everyone who had met him during his life had always thought of him a bloodthirsty warrior who would kill his enemies in the most horrible ways imaginable, even his fellow Dark Captains thought he was just an utter brute, yet there was something that none of them knew about him: he had other feelings besides anger and blood-lust, there was also sadness embedded in his heart.

Lothar hadn't always been a bloodthirsty tyrannical warlord, instead he had once been kind-hearted and quite thoughtful towards other people, but that had all changed during the early afternoon on a day that Lothar would never forget, for it changed his life forever, not to mention what happened afterwards.

* * *

 _The Sun was high and bright in the sky, there were little clouds and there was no wind, the day seemed peaceful in the so-called 'barbarian' homeland of the Iron-Shield Clan and the people they ruled. Most people in the Empire imagined the barbarians to live in small wooden huts with no insulation and slept in sheep skin alongside the dogs, but they were wrong, for the barbarians were not as savage as they were believed to be so. True, they were not as cultured as the Empire in the south but they had no interest in their culture, social lives, hierarchy or even religion, none of these mattered to the barbarians and those who lived closer to the Northern Wastelands were considered the most warlike and revolting of all, even some of their neighbours had started to take caution towards them. The barbarians actually lived in stone and timber houses, halls and their towns and villages were constructed in a rather sophisticated way. However, there were a few tribes along the imperial border that had treaties with the Empire, one of these tribes were the Iron-Shields who had been promised protection as long as they paid tribute to the Empire in the form of natural resources._

 _But one day the Iron-Shield Clan was unable to pay the Empire in the resources that it demanded in the terms of the treaty that was signed between King Wuulfgar Iron-Shield and Emperor Theodosius III, when the emperor heard that the Iron-Shields were unable to pay their goods as the treaty said then the general of the local area, Vertillius Mancinus, was to find a way to make the barbarians pay. The negotiations took place in the town centre between the general and King Wuulfgar Iron-Shield, and it wasn't going well. Wuulfgar wore a fur cloak, leather arm guards, boots, a belt and a grey tunic and pants, he had long scruffy black hair and a black beard, his hair had strands of grey in it. He stood height-to-height with Vertillius who wore a steel breastplate and helmet without a visor, the helmet had small red feathers running from the front to the back, he also wore a red cloak with white lining, steel arm-plates and leg-plates with chain mail._

" _We can't pay up right now, if you haven't noticed already," explained Wuulfgar. "The emperor will have to wait until next season when we'll be able to pay the grain, amber and other resources he so wishes."_

" _The treaty specifically said that payment was to occur a week ago, and we're still waiting. The emperor is becoming more and more fed up with your excuses. Find a way to pay up or we will make a way," spoke Vertillius._

" _And how would you expect me to pay? There is no other way!"_

 _As the two of them argued over how payment was to happen a crowd of people watched the scene unfold before them, from the king's hall door stood a young boy of around six years with small spiky black hair, he wore a black cloak over his grey tunic, black pants adorned his legs and he looked rather chirpy yet also unsure about the situation. As he watched his father, Wuulfgar, talk with the imperial general a woman with looks similar to the young boy – minus the longer hair and the dark green dress she wore – walked up to the boy and placed a hand on his shoulder._

" _Why are you watching this, Lothar?" she asked her son._

" _Because I want to see how my father defuses the situation, he can't let the Empire take whatever it wants and let it get away with it!" replied the young boy called Lothar._

" _You better wish that the Empire doesn't hear you speak those words, there would be no hope for us if there is to be open war between us."_

 _Just then the voices in the crowd rose to a high pitch and several imperial soldiers had arrived to support the general, eventually Vertillius lost his patience and issued a command to his soldiers. "If you cannot pay the goods then I have another way for you to pay up. Soldiers, take the eldest child of each family and take them back to the fort!"_

 _The command took the Iron-Shield Clan by surprise and the imperial soldiers began to round up every child they encountered and had them taken to the town gates, the Iron-Shield warriors attempted to regain the children but failed as Vertillius threatened them by saying that he would have the entire Iron-Shield town burned to the ground and have everyone slaughtered. Thus Wuulfgar was forced to watch as the eldest child of every family was taken to the town gates, even his son Lothar was seized by the imperial soldiers. As Lothar was dragged down the gravel ground towards the gates he looked at his father with mixed expressions._

" _Father! Help me!" pleaded Lothar, but his father's response was to look at him in pity. It was to be the last time they would look upon each other._

* * *

 _The Imperial City, the most grandest of all cites that the world had seen for centuries, the walls were stainless and made of pure white stone, it was around forty feet tall and stretched for miles upon miles, tall towers could be seen and guards patrolled the battlements. In the centre of the city stood the Imperial Palace where the emperor and his family resided, there the day-to-day tasks of government took place. Upon the Golden Throne sat the emperor, Theodosius III, now an old man in his eighties, before him stood three people, two men and a woman. All three of them were clad in the likeness of an imperial general, they stood to attention as the emperor stood up and walked over to them, in his hands he held three scrolls for them. First he stood in front of the woman by the name of Juvia Red-Axe, a woman from the Red-Axe Clan to the north-east imperial border, the emperor handed one scroll to her and congratulated her for making it to the rank of Captain of the Imperial Guard. Next he approached the first man who was named Lucius Amullius – who was an imperial through and through, the emperor handed him a scroll and congratulated him on reaching the rank of captain, then he approached the last man, Lothar Iron-Shield, and handed him a scroll before congratulating him on reaching the rank of lieutenant._

" _Well done, all three of you, you have all passed the requirements and have been found worthy of your new ranks, even if two of you are barbarians by birth," said Theodosius III._

 _Juvia and Lothar glanced at each other as the emperor said that, Lothar hated being discriminated as just a barbarian while Juvia had gotten over it. However, the emperor was not finished talking. "Written on those scrolls are the places which the three of you will be placed, report to the barracks tomorrow with those scrolls and you will be sent to your assignments."_

 _The three of them bowed before the emperor before leaving his presence and walked down the long marble hallway and into the morning sunlight, outside the main entrance were two large braziers that were lit with what was known as the 'Holy Flame of the Emperor', the fire crackled and flickered as the three adults passed by them and walked to the nearest tavern._

 _The three of them were friends and had known each other for many years ever since they met one another in the military academy, Lothar and Lucius did not get along at first due to Lothar's dislike of the 'imperial race' while Lucius was an arrogant kid, they both respected Juvia due to her respectful nature, even Lucius could not find a fault with the barbarian girl. Eventually the three of them worked their way through the military academy together and then rose through the ranks of the army. As they sat in the tavern they looked at each others scroll and gazed at their assignments; Juvia was to stay in the Imperial City as the new Captain of the Imperial Guard, the police force of the Empire and the most feared soldiers in the army, Lucius was to be assigned to the eastern coast and take a commanding position within the navy, it seemed that Severia the Pirate Queen had the entire east coast under her control, Lothar was to be sent to the northern border and serve as lieutenant under the command of Vertillius Mancinus – who had been reappointed as general of the area once again._

" _Vertillius huh?" grumbled Lothar. "Screw that bastard, the emperor must have done this on purpose."_

" _He has to be testing your loyalty towards the Empire is he's sending you up there," explained Juvia._

" _What's the point of having so much soldiers there anyway?" asked Lucius. "The Iron-Shield Clan was destroyed a few years ago and the outlying barbarian territories have been ravaged, so why send reinforcements there of all places?"_

 _Lothar sighed in sadness at the comment, he found out that his clan had been wiped out by the Empire a few years ago after his father had died and then his uncle took over, finally there was a short war that resulted in the Empire seizing more land north of their border and thus Lothar's growing hatred of the Empire had only increased. The only thing that had stopped him from slaying the emperor and trying to burn the Imperial Palace was Juvia and Lucius, while Lucius was an arrogant fool he did feel some sympathy towards Lothar, Juvia was a barbarian by birth and thus felt pity towards the last of the Iron-Shield Clan._

 _As for Juvia and Lucius' appearances; Juvia had blonde hair that was tied up in a ponytail, her skin was fair, her eyes were green and she wasn't quite tall, she wore the usual generals outfit as it was the standard officers uniform as well, except the feathers were smaller and were also white. Lucius had brown hair with a tinge of black, dark orange eyes and a clean shaven face. Juvia was a battlemage while Lucius was the usual close combat soldier._

" _Guerrilla warfare has broken out in the former Iron-Shield territory, many were displaced by the purge and those who had once served the Iron-Shields are now fighting to regain their former homeland," said Juvia._

" _I find their attempts futile, the Empire has never been beaten by barbarians before and it will never be defeated by them," boasted Lucius, his faith in the Empire was unwavering._

" _The ones you call 'barbarians' will never give up, no matter the cost," explained Lothar._

" _Whatever, just make sure you remember this though: the past is the past, you serve the emperor now, and you will be rewarded for fighting in his and his family's name," said Lucius._

* * *

 _The journey to the northern border was uneventful, save for the news that the Nameless One had gone missing around the Northern Wastelands and a strange blue and red eyed man wandering the south, but apart from that there wasn't anything else of importance that Lothar thought was news worthy. When Lothar arrived at his designated location he encountered a line of forts that stretched for miles, the forts themselves were made out of wood and stone, a few guards were patrolling the battlements. When Lothar entered the fort he came face-to-face with the man he dreaded to see again: Vertillius Mancinus. Vertillius had aged since Lothar last saw him, the general now had strands of grey in his hair and his beard, plus a scar could be seen running down his right arm. The old general looked at Lothar as he climbed off his horse and stood to attention._

" _There is no need for formalities between the two of us since we both know one another, Lothar Iron-Shield. I pray to the gods that the emperor made the right choice by sending you here, I, for one, seriously doubt that you can last here in the presence of your former homeland," said Vertellius, his tone of voice made it clear that he wasn't pleased to have Lothar under his command._

 _Lothar said nothing in response, he knew that it was better to stay silent instead of picking a fight with the Commander-in-Chief of most of the northern border. It became clear that serving under a grizzled veteran commander was to be a difficult task for Lothar to complete._

 _There wasn't much for Lothar to do upon the frontier as he found out over the few weeks, his jobs consisted of forcing the natives to pay their taxes and put down any sort of resistance, yet guerrilla warfare was dying out as their leaders had already been killed before Lothar even arrived, the remaining resistance was from barbarians who refused to pay taxes. Imagine the shock that the natives got when they encountered Lothar after fifteen years, it wasn't a good shock for most of them as they saw Lothar wearing the armour of the Empire, thus they quickly believed that he was just an imperial puppet. Such was the situation in one of the run-down villages of the former Iron-Shield kingdom._

" _Wrosteg!" cursed one villager at Lothar._

" _What did he say?" Vertillius asked Lothar._

" _He called me 'traitor'," replied Lothar._

 _Vertillius and Lothar were in one of the villages that had sworn fealty to the Iron-Shield Clan, but now it was in imperial influence and was suffering due to the harshness of Vertillius, who hated barbarians of any nature. Lothar looked upon the villagers and could feel only pity, these people had once served his family and now look at them, they've been forced into a life of poverty and death. Something had to be done, something needed to be done soon if the will of these people were not to be broken and for the imperial war machine to stop its rampage, they needed a hero to save them, someone who had a deep grudge against the Empire and wasn't afraid to get his hands dirty. Someone like himself Lothar reasoned._

" _Lothar, you can deal with settling matters here, I'm off to the fort to take care of administration," said Vertillius as he began to trod away on his horse alongside a few imperial troops._

 _Lothar nodded and dismounted his horse, the villagers looked at him with fear as well as anger, but one did not, an old villager – who would have been the village elder chief – walked up to Lothar and gazed up and down at the man. He hummed and made several strange noises as he continued to look at him, eventually he stepped back and began to talk to Lothar._

" _You look like an imperial officer, but you're one of us," said the elder chief, his voice hinted at his old age. "Am I right?"_

" _Of course, I hate the Empire, they took almost everything away from me and I end up wearing one of their damn suits of armour and get a position in the army, but despite all that they took from me they have failed to take away one thing: my identity," spoke Lothar in response._

" _You're an imperial now, no matter what you say," informed the villager who cursed at him._

" _I'm not an imperial, but I can think like one, and that will be their downfall. I know their strategies, their movements, I know how they think and act. I have thought about it for many weeks now and I believe that there is hope for everyone here, at last there will be revenge for the destruction of the Iron-Shield Clan for I am Lothar Iron-Shield, I have spoken!"_

 _The village elder grinned at Lothar. "It seems that the last of the Iron-Shields has not forgotten his ancestry, good, very good. I served your father once, before he died, it was a miserable time that followed afterwards. Now, what is it that you wish?"_

 _A wicked smirk grew on Lothar's face, a plan had formed in his mind. "Gather the tribes, there is to be council before everything is set in motion."_

* * *

 _In a forest glade with tall standing stones stood several barbarian chieftains, all of them clad in fur, leather and chain mail armour, a few were old while others were young and full of spirit, there were a dozen of them altogether. In the middle of the group stood Lothar and the village elder, the elder was clad in ragged cloth, leather sandals, a fur cloak and carried a staff, Lothar wore his imperial armour and carried his helmet by his waist, this didn't set a good precedent to the chieftains but he had no other gear to wear._

" _Our time for vengeance is upon us, the imperial army will not stop until this world is under their control and that means that every single one of you is under threat by these bastards," said Lothar in a booming voice. "It is time for us to unite and fight under one banner, it is time to destroy these imperial dogs and take back our lands!"_

" _Why should we believe you?" demanded one chieftain. "You're just one of them: an imperial dog. You are a traitor to the Iron-Shields, or what's left of them at least."_

 _Lothar stared at him with anger in his eyes, it was clear that the chieftain had stepped over a line but yet he continued to berate Lothar. "Your father and uncle would be utterly disgraced with you for wearing such armour and the way you talk about ending imperial power along the frontier, but what do we get out of it? How can we trust you? Heh, you're nothing but a..."_

 _The chieftain failed to finish the last part of the sentence as Lothar drew his sword and in one swift move had swung his sword into the chieftain's neck and decapitated him. The head fell to the ground and the lifeless corpse wriggled on the ground for a few seconds before lying still, blood flowed from the neck and decorated the green grass. Lothar picked up the head by the scruffy hair and jammed it onto a nearby spear, the spear point stuck out of the top of the head as the spear shaft was stuck into the ground, blood ran down the wooden shaft and onto the ground. The other chieftains were struck in awe and shock as they watched their comrade be slaughtered and decorated in said way, they never believed that Lothar had it in him to do such a thing._

" _That is what will happen to every single one of you if the Empire is left unchecked, either that or it'll be me who will do this to all of you if you refuse to join together in a coalition against our enemies!" shouted Lothar._

 _One chieftain, a man who wore a chain mail shirt above his black shirt and dark grey pants, he had the hide of a wolf strapped to his back and a wolfs head over his steel helmet, he grinned at Lothar in response to his outcry. "What do you need, Lothar Iron-Shield?"_

" _Gather all the warriors you can muster and prepare a trap by this location," replied Lothar as he walked over to the remaining chieftains with a map. The map showed a geographic representation of the local area and there were a few spots for an ambush that would destroy Vertillius and the local armies, one such location was an area with dense forests and marshy terrain, a perfect killing field._

" _The preparations could take a week at least," grumbled one of the chieftains._

" _Then a week is all we've got, once the preparations are completed I'll convince Vertillius to march through that area with as many soldiers as possible and we'll slaughter them all," responded Lothar. "Once they are gone then the frontier will be back in our hands once again and the Empire will be threatened once more."_

" _I hope this is successful," said the elder chief._

" _As do I," replied Lothar._

* * *

 _For the next week the barbarian tribes gathered their warriors into a coalition that was led by Lothar while preparing themselves for the inevitable battle that was to come, meanwhile, Lothar had managed to convince Vertillius that there was a barbarian uprising near the ambush location and an army was being prepared that could threaten the very frontiers of the Empire, the old general was fooled into believing Lothar and assembled a large army of around fifteen thousand troops from all across the forts along the northern border, he then marched his combined army into the trap that awaited him on a bright sunny day. Lothar had managed to slip away from the imperial army and made it safely to the barbarian camp where he was greeted by the chieftains, then he armed himself in a new set of armour: blood red leather and steel armour on his chest, legs and arms while a leather helmet with bands of steel clasped to it, instead of a sword he now wielded a war-hammer with a pointed end and a flat surface on the other. There were around nine thousand barbarian warriors ready to kill, they waited patiently in the trees and in the marshes, Lothar waited in the trees with the main attack force. His plan was to wait until the imperial army had stretched until it was too thin and then attack their centre, then slaughter the rest in a bloodbath._

" _Wait, wait," commanded Lothar in a hushed tone._

 _He then caught sight of Vertillius upon his horse, Lothar wanted to be the one that killed him and told his soldiers that the general was his to kill. Suddenly, Lothar stood up from the dense bushes and cried out a blood-curling yell, this was the signal to attack. Thousands of barbarian warriors came out of the marshes and crashed into the imperial army, heads and limbs were cut off as the barbarians rampaged their way through. One warrior grabbed an imperial solder by the shoulders and tore his throat out with his teeth before spitting it at his face. Lothar leapt from a rock and into the dense crowd of imperial soldiers, he swung the pointed end of his war-hammer into a soldier's face, the sickening cracking of bones were heard as the pointed end found its way into the unfortunate man, Lothar then swung his mighty weapon around and the corpse was thrown into a few imperial soldiers, sending them to the ground and made them prime targets for the ruthless barbarian warriors who tore them apart – literally._

" _ **Pounding Death**!" yelled Lothar as his war-hammer gathered energy and was smashed on top of a soldier's head, the poor bugger wasn't wearing a helmet, the force of the impact shattered the soldier's head, blood was sent splattering all over the place and onto Lothar who only grinned in response._

" _Now then, where is Vertellius?"_

 _Lothar walked through the bloody carnage, usually crushing and puncturing unfortunate soldiers who got in his way, he even ripped off someone's arm and beat them to death with it. Finally he encountered Vertullius who was clashing blade-to-blade with several warriors, he sidestepped one of them and stabbed his short blade into the warrior's waist before brining the blade up and through the man's skull before swinging it across another warrior's neck. Despite his age Vertillius was still a capable soldier. When he locked his eyes upon Lothar he could only growl._

" _Lothar, you damn traitor, I knew that the emperor should've kept you down in the Imperial City," growled Vertillius as he readied his sword. "Cure you and all barbarians who live inside and outside the Empire!"_

" _Then I curse the ones who brought ruin and misery to my people!" responded Lothar before he charged at Vertillius._

 _The two of them clashed with each other for several minutes, neither one giving up the fight, yet it was becoming clear that Vertillius was loosing, and even if he did managed to win the duel there was nowhere to run: the barbarians had utterly surrounded the imperial army. There was no escape._

 _Lothar dodged a swipe from Vertillius' sword and swung his war-hammer at his legs, the impact sent the old man onto the ground and at the mercy of his bloodthirsty opponent, before Vertillius could speak Lothar smash his war-hammer at his face, killing him instantly, blood splattered everywhere, but it was not enough. Lothar continued to hit the lifeless and bloodied corpse of Vertillius over and over again until almost no one could recognise him, bones stuck out of several places and were broken, blood covered the entire body as well as Lothar who laughed._

" _Ahahahahahahahah! Finally, I did it! I killed the bastard!" yelled Lothar as he then began to stomp on what was left of Vertillius, his heavy boots began to crush what little bones were left unshattered._

 _Thus the Battle of Iron-Shield Redoubt ended. It was an inglorious defeat for the empire, there were little to no soldiers left manning the forts and thus the northern border was left wide open to raiding and the seizing of land, Theodosius III was said to have died of a heart attack as soon as the news came to him, along with what was left of Vertillius' body. Juvia was flabbergasted that Lothar had the guts to turn his back on the Empire and lead the tribes to battle, Lucius cursed his name and swore to kill him when the news reached him at the eastern coast. It had a large impact on the Empire, and the news wasn't just left within the boundaries of the Empire. Many other barbarian tribes heard of the news and begun war preparations, it even reached the ears of the Dark Lord and the Nameless One in the Northern Wastelands. Even a certain blue and red eyed stranger heard the news, not to mention Severia the Pirate Queen, even a lonesome figure who wore grey robes and a mask over his face heard of it. The seeds of future war were sown at that moment._

* * *

"Aye, it was a sad time, and look at where I am now," muttered Lothar to himself. "I'm stuck in another dimension where nothing makes sense any more, I just want to see the ruined halls of my clan one last time and walk upon the grassy fields with the wind blowing in my face once again. I would kill anyone and anything just to have those moments happen to me again, those beautiful moments of happiness."

He then heard the sounds of footsteps coming from behind him, it sounded like there was just one person coming towards him. Lothar turned around and saw a woman wearing small steel armour and a black cloak coming towards him, she had black hair, blue eyes, wore white rimmed glasses, was holding a laptop and was trembling, possibly out of fear. Lothar knew that his Dark Followers were afraid of him but didn't seem to mind it.

"What is it?" Lothar asked impatiently. "I've got things on my mind so make it quick."

"Um, sir… we've got an email from an anonymous source claiming that they can help you with whatever you need as long as you get them out of prison," explained the nervous woman.

"Email? What's an email?" asked Lothar, he never got the hang of anything modern and made no attempt to do so.

"It's like messaging with a letter but it's done online via a computer or a phone," replied the black haired woman. This only made Lothar more confused.

"Er, never mind that then, sounds boring. Anyway, where is this prison? I could use some new allies."

"The prison is near the Basilicom, apparently it was constructed to hold a dangerous person of some sort. I think it's best if you read the message, sir."

Lothar took hold of the laptop, hesitantly, and read it carefully. To the woman's surprise Lothar looked rather curious as he read it, finally he handed the laptop back and crossed his arms, he appeared to be deep in thought as he spoke.

"Very well then, I might as well break this guy out, he sounds capable. By the way, before I break this anonymous person out I noticed that he or she had a strange name. Tell me, who is this Anonydeath?"

* * *

 **A/N: Took me a while to think of a part of Lothar's back-story, so I took inspiration from Arminius and the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest for this chapter, expect more bone crushing and head smashing scenes later on. Plus it seems that Anonydeath is going to make an appearance as well, I had to do it, he's such a lad. Anyway, see ya all later.**


	33. Flat vs Big

**Chapter 32: Flat vs Big  
**

It was a pleasant sleep for Brian after he was forced to sleep on top of Rom and Ram's bed, though ever since he woke up he never got a single moment of peace and quiet as not only were Rom and Ram rather attached to him – sometimes clinging to his arms, shoulders and even on top of his head in Ram's case – but Blanc had also started to make jokes about Brian's taste in girls, Angel also joined in with Blanc with the teasing as well, even Mina decided to pull out one joke from her hat before saying she was sorry. It sounded to Brian's ears that he was being classified as a pervert, or worse – a paedophile, which he knew that he was definitely not. It had been a day since Brian had become a 'big brother' to Rom and Ram and now he was hanging out with Angel in the training facility where Angel was practising some new moves that he found in a book in the library.

"Hit me as hard as you can, show no mercy to me," Angel said to Brian.

The two of them were in the centre of the training facility in what could be described as something similar to a boxing ring, everywhere around them there were signs of sword marks upon the ground and walls, small splatters of blood could be noticed if one was to look carefully. Angel had been training himself ever since the first day and hadn't really done anything else besides training till he would almost pass out from exhaustion. Blanc had shown some concern about Angel's well-being and during breakfast, after Brian had been teased relentlessly, she had asked the sadist why he kept training day after day without any breaks. He answered with a shrug and continued to eat his food, it was clear that it wasn't something he wanted to talk about.

Brian sighed as he heard Angel's request, or rather demand. "You sure about this? If I go all out on you there's a chance that you will die."

"I'm prepared to take that risk. Come on already, just fight me." Angel grabbed his two-handed longsword from his back and held it firmly with his two hands, a determined look was plastered on his face as he stared at Brian.

"Fine then." Brian drew his sword from his side and held it in front of him. "It's time to duel! Huh, funny, now I've got the urge to play a certain trading card game all of a sudden. Bah, who cares."

The two friends stared at each other intensely for a few seconds before Angel charged at Brian, the sadist was swift as he ran at his friend and as he swung his sword at him Brian found it hard to block the attack. Angel twisted his wrists around and he moved his blade in an 180 degrees before attempting to knee Brian in the stomach, his friend dodged the attack but left himself open for a strike to his front, and that was what happened as Angel swiftly slammed the pummel of his two-handed sword into Brian's chest before kicking his stomach, sending him to the ground.

"C'mon, I told you to give it your all, not just be a punching bag," complained Angel as Brian got up off the ground.

"You would die if I did that," explained Brian. "I cannot allow that."

"Give it your all. _Do_. _It_."

As Brian prepared himself to fight Angel and as said sadist cracked his neck and his knuckles the two of them failed to notice two sets of eyes watching them from the slightly open door, there stood Blanc and Mina, both of whom were interested in what was happening. The two of them watched as Brian and Angel charged towards each other and clash blade-to-blade, the clashing of steel ringed through the otherwise silent landscape of the Basilicom, sparks could be seen flying from the sharp swords as the two friends moved around each other and clashed their blades together. Blanc noticed that Brian wasn't using his Share Energy in the fight and wondered why, she didn't really know much about Brian's power and could only guess about it although she did know that whenever he got angry the Share Energy would activate, Angel on the other hand didn't have any powers and was only a novice at using special attacks, but he was more stronger and swifter than his friend and thus a better fighter.

Brian sidestepped Angel and elbowed him in the face, the sadist fell to one knee and quickly tackled him to the ground, he then proceeded to punch him in the stomach over and over again. Brian refused to strike back, causing Angel to stop his relentless attack and just stare at his friend dead in the eyes.

"You're not fighting hard enough. Fight me. I need you to do this," said Angel in a low voice.

"Why do you need this type of training?" asked Brian. "Why not just continue slashing and hacking away at the training dummies like usual?"

"Because a live target is better than something made of straw, plastic or concrete. Now, fight."

"I fight better when I am angry, so make me angry." Brian stood up off the ground and stared at his friend.

"You sure about that, Brian? I know what happens when you get angry, and it ain't pretty."

"If you want a true fight then make me angry, I wont hold it against you later… maybe."

"Very well then, I'll make you angry, you perverted paedophile who happens to love flat chests."

Suddenly everything was silent and Blanc swore that she could hear the creaking of the support beams in the Basilicom walls, then in an instant Brian stood up straight and was engulfed in Share Energy, but it was the first time that Angel and even Blanc had seen such a concentration of Share Energy around Brian, his eyes flared a more bright blue than before. Blanc and Mina noticed that the Share Energy wasn't only glowing around him but was also appearing like a blue fire, strands of Share Energy flowed like fire. Brian growled at Angel as he gripped his sword tightly.

"I told you to make me angry, not a bloodthirsty maniac!" yelled Brian as he snarled at Angel and ran at him, he swung his sword around him and then he swiftly brought the blade over his head and down upon Angel, who blocked it with his sword.

"Finally, a true fight!" muttered Angel as pushed Brian away and brought his blade across the Ancient. " **Shadow Skin**!"

Angel had finally mastered one special skill, which was something he was proud of. This move gave him a fifty percent defence against physical attacks, this could be seen by the dark aura flowing around his body. It didn't last long however, around 10 seconds or just over, and it took a little while to cool down before being used again.

"So you've finally mastered something eh? Well you ain't the only one as I too have mastered another technique, this is one that Wraith taught me back in Planeptune," said Brian as he prepared to sprint at Angel. " **Wraith Blade**!"

The two clashed blade-to-blade more fiercely than before, but neither one of them could strike each other on their flesh with their blades except for the usual punch and kick, the clashing of steel rang even louder in the ears of Blanc and Mina as the fighting continued. Eventually Brian sliced his blade across Angel's right arm and kicked him in the chest, sending him to the ground.

"Had enough yet you breast obsessed pervert?!" demanded Brian as he approached Angel with his sword above his head.

"Obsessed? I'm not obsessed with breasts, I just happen to like them big, that's all," retorted Angel as he stood up with a fire in his eyes – metaphorically speaking of course.

"Great, another 'big is good' fan boy," grumbled Blanc to herself.

Brian lowered his sword and sighed. "You've always preferred things to be big, it amazes me that you have a deep interest in Plutia despite her lack of assets, at least in human form."

"I can say the same thing about you."

Brian glared at his sadistic friend. "What are you talking about?"

"Blanc of course, you're interested in her despite her obvious washboard appearance, I'll never understand why you're interested in something like that, not to mention her bad temper."

Mina looked down at Blanc worryingly and saw her trademark glaring red eye, the only thing holding her back from attacking Angel was Mina herself. What Brian said next both stunned Blanc and Mina.

"Yeah, I know that she's a washboard when it comes to chest size and that her temper has a short fuse, and let's not forget her poor social skills. But that's what I like about her. I like the size of her chest, I find her temper amusing and even adorable at times, her poor social skills I find similar to mine and because of the way she acts I find it cute. She is a dear friend to me."

Blanc never expected Brian to say anything like that and because of that her anger had disappeared, she then instead became slightly flustered and blushed while having a small smile on her face, this didn't go unnoticed by Mina who could only silently chuckle. Angel chuckled and shook his head.

"I won't question what you think about Blanc and her quirks but her chest is a problem, big is good," Angel tried to reason with Brian.

"Flat is justice."

"Big is good."

"FLAT IS JUSTICE!"

"BIG IS GOOD!"

"FLAT IS JUSTICE! NOW REST IN HELL!"

Brian, with astonishing speed, charged at Angel and brought his blade towards the sadist's face which he blocked with his sword, Angel was mildly surprised at Brian's new-found speed and wondered if emotions were a prime factor in his agility and strength when he was using Share Energy. Either way it mattered little to Angel and he was getting a bit tired, which was strange for him but after he sidestepped Brian and swung his sword over the Ancient's head he soon realised that he hadn't slept properly for a few days. As Brian twisted his blade around and almost struck Angel across the chest the sadist realised that he actually needed a break for once.

 _Some fresh air, that would be a good change for a while. Yes, I'll take a walk outside for a few minutes before getting some rest, I've been inside for too long I reckon by most people's standards. I gotta finish Brian off._

Angel quickly smashed Brian's attack and punched him in the face before twirling around and launching a roundhouse kick to his head, sending him out of the ring and crashing into an empty weapon rack, the wooden stands collapsed on top of him and buried him. Brian raised his head with a threatening glare, his Share Energy had been deactivated.

"If you speak of this to anyone I'll rip your arms off," snarled Brian.

"If you so wish," responded Angel as he exited the ring and walked over to Brian, he pulled his friend out of the mess he created and onto his feet.

Brian picked up his sword and strapped it back onto his waist as Angel strapped his two-handed sword onto his back, the Ancient looked at his sadistic friend and asked a question. "Are we done here?"

"Yeah, we're done training for the moment, I just gotta get some fresh air for a while, I've been cooked up in the Basilicom for most of our stay," replied Angel.

As the two of them headed for the door Blanc and Mina realised that they would be spotted and quickly agreed to leave. Blanc continued to think about Brian's words about her while Mina was pondering whether Blanc was going to finish her novel in time or not, then there was the afterthought of what could happen if Angel went wandering around Lowee. Nothing bad could happen… right?

* * *

Gamindustri had seen many strange people throughout its history, goddesses were apparently a normal thing for the locals and the matter was left at that, but what was strange for the citizens were people who could absorb Share Energy and could destroy buildings and then there were people who gave a deadly sadistic vibe wherever they went, this is what went through Angel's mind as he walked down the streets of Lowee. The people seemed to sense the sadism coming from him and decided unanimously to stay away from him, although there were a few who just didn't seem to care, Angel classified these people as rather dense idiots.

After he had left the Basilicom his walk had taken him to a clothes shop where there was a sale occurring, and Angel decided to take advantage of it to buy something for himself. He had decided that he would buy different clothes that suited him when he was in each of the different nations, but since he felt comfortable in his current clothes he decided to get himself a new pair of shoes, which the shop incidentally had, his current shoes were starting to fall apart. Angel entered the shop and gazed at everything and everyone around him, it was a small store but had whatever people wanted in it, the walls were white and the shelves were grey, everything the store had was in a systematic order from small to big, size, colour and cost. Angel wandered over to the shoe section and saw a pair of black running shoes on one of the shelves, he walked over to it, picked it up and read the price tag, it read '20 credits'.

Nodding in approval Angel continued to hold the shoes and turned around to walk over to the counter, but suddenly he bumped into a person and Angel crashed into the shelves, sending shoes everywhere. As the sadist picked up a shoe off his head and threw it away a hand appeared in front of his face, he looked at it and where it came from, he was then staring at the face of a man who wore a top had on top of his chrome coloured hair, a dark-brown trench coat – that covered most of his legs – and appeared to be buttoned on his chest. a black undershirt was also worn and a ruby tipped cane was held in his right hand.

"You alright down there?" asked the stranger.

"I hope that was sarcasm," replied Angel as he clasped his hand around the stranger's left hand, he was then pulled up to his feet.

"Does it matter? And I apologise for bumping into you."

"Apology accepted. Anyway, who the hell are you?"

"The name is Victor, I am a traveller who wanders Gamindustri. If I may ask, what is your name?"

"The name is Angel, dimension tripper and acquaintance of the CPUs."

Out of everyone Angel had seen thus far during his stay in Gamindustri this man before him, Victor, was the most strangest looking that he had encountered – not including the Dark Captains of course. The sadist had never seen anyone wear a top hat before, especially with a trench coat. However, Victor didn't seem to be dangerous at first glance and no weapon could be seen on him, except for his cane, but Angel had learned that one should never judge a book by its cover, so he decided to tread with caution.

"A dimension tripper eh? Yes, I think you are the one that I was sent to find," mumbled Victor to himself as he rubbed his chin with his index finger and thumb. Angel heard it and was surprised that he was being sought out by someone.

"I heard that, Victor, so who wants me?" asked Angel in a serious tone.

"Well, he isn't someone I know personally as I only met him not long ago, earlier this morning I think it was, he called himself Wraith," replied Victor.

Angel had been told about Wraith by Brian during the first day of Angel's stay in Planeptune, his first impressions of the mysterious man were somewhat mixed, on one hand he sounded like quite the fighter and could possibly even defeat the CPUs if they all ganged up on him, yet his purpose in Gamindustri was unknown to everyone it seemed and he just as dangerous and possibly even just as ruthless as the Dark Captains. There was one last thing that confused Angel: how did Wraith know him?

"What does Wraith want with me?" asked Angel.

"I don't know, all he said was that I had to find you before the day ended, and fortunately for him it's only around lunchtime," replied Victor. "He said that if you want answers to your questions then he will meet you at the lone hill north of the city, he also said that he might be able to train you if you so desire."

Angel was now intrigued with the proposition laid before him, in fact he did have a few questions that he wanted to ask Wraith and it just occurred to him that Wraith would be a great trainer, after all he had been alive for over a thousand years and he taught Brian for three days and managed to get him to use two different techniques, at least one he had mastered while the other one – Shattering Earth – was more troublesome. Angel now knew what he was going to do for most of the day: train with Wraith.

"Alright then, you might as well lead the way since I don't know anything around here," said Angel. "Just let me buy these running shoes first though."

* * *

The journey to the lone hill north of the city was easier than Angel had anticipated back at the store, but that was because he hadn't expected Victor to guide him through the city and onwards to the north. Finally they walked up a snowy hill covered in trees and then they arrived at a flat plain upon the large hill, there they saw a lone figure wearing a long black coat with a hood over his head, a black scarf across his mouth and nose, black gloves, boots and dark pants, his eyes were glowing blue, red and it seemed that a tinge of dark purple was swirling in the centre of each eye, it was clear that this man was Wraith. Angel noticed that there were many stitches in Wraith's clothing and many tears which gave Angel and Victor a partially good view at his light armour underneath. Wraith was sitting on a rock and was staring at the cloudy sky before he noticed the others.

"So, you decided to come eh? Good, I'm sure that you will find that your time with me will be most beneficial," said Wraith as he stood up.

"For your sake I hope so," responded Angel as he walked up to Wraith. Victor stood close by, eager to listen to the conversation. "I heard from Victor over there that you would answer any questions I had as well as train me, if that is correct."

"He didn't lie. Ask away at your own leisure."

"Very well then. How did you manage to get me and Brian into this dimension?"

Wraith sat back down on the large rock he as sitting on before and put his hands under his chin. "I used the magic that the Ancients once used before they became extinct – minus Brian of course. The most interesting thing about the Ancient way of dimensional travelling is that not only can the portal take you anywhere but there is also a ninety percent chance that you will also time travel so you will end up at your designated location but not in the right era, I just happened to open a portal from a long distance and you two fell in, Brian being first while you came second, that is why you ended up in Gamindustri almost a week and a half later than Brian did. Though out the hard way when it came to dimension travelling when I tried to travel to another dimension but ended up in the wrong era and because of that I was almost killed by Genghis Khan and his Golden Horde."

"You met Genghis Khan?" asked Angel with a surprised look on his face. Victor raised an eyebrow at the name for it meant nothing to him, he was just a citizen of Gamindustri after all.

"Well, I suppose you could say that, it wasn't pleasant when he tried to decapitate me just because he thought I was some daemon." Wraith shuddered at the memory. "Any more questions?"

"Yeah, a few actually. Just who are you, really?"

Wraith sighed and shook his head solemnly. "I am merely The Wraith, nothing more nothing less. Are you interested in hearing how I got the name?"

"Tell me then." Angel was slightly curious about how Wraith got his name, if it was even a name.

"Severia the Stoic, one of the Dark Captains, first called me that when I was travelling her home dimension many years ago."

"Interesting. Hmm, what was their dimension like?"

"Rather splendid in terrain, but apart from that there isn't much else to tell, it is a shadow of its former glory, their world fell into ruin after a terrible war and now the remnants of that war have come here to do what they originally failed to do: world domination."

"But why? What happened to lead it all up to this?"

Victor was now deeply interested in their conversation and was managing to piece together parts that have been left out by guessing what little he knew and from the rumours that had been spreading around not only Lowee and Planeptune but also Lastation and Leanbox. He had heard of the Dark Captains and in fact he had seen two of them in Planeptune a week ago when Lothar and Kharzark attacked the Planeptune Basilicom in order to retrieve Share Energy. At any rate he continued to listen to the conversation that was going on.

Wraith let out a heavy sigh before standing up, it was then that Victor noticed how tall the thousand year old man was. Wraith looked over at Victor and spoke to him.

"Victor, since you have spoken to both of us you are now involved with the situation as much as we are, it is likely that the enemy already has spies infiltrated in Lowee and spied your movements as you escorted Angel to here, which means that you might be an opponent of the Dark Captain's in the near future. I'm sorry to have gotten you involved in this."

Victor merely shrugged and re-straightened his top hat. "It's alright, I've been looking for an excuse to see some more activity lately, but this doesn't mean that I'll be fighting battles alongside you and your friends all of the time, only when I believe that my skills will be needed."

Wraith nodded at Victor before returning his gaze to Angel. "I think it might be best if you say some of the events for yourself."

He raised his right hand and extended it towards Angel's face, the sadist was naturally suspicious about it and looked questioningly at Wraith. "Er, what are you doing?"

"I am going to let you see some of my memories, I hope that will answer not only your recent question but also a few more that you might have in your mind."

"Will it hurt?"

"Most likely."

"Good."

Wraith then planted his right hand on Angel's head, the palm of the hand was over the forehead, then a blue light enveloped around Wraith's right arm, then there was a small tinge of red that followed soon afterwards, the energy was sent hurdling into Angel's mind and his eyes quickly became the same as Wraith's. It was the most painful experience that Angel had ever been in, and he loved it. Suddenly his vision was replaced and everything around him appeared ghost-like, everything around him was gone and shards of a blue, red and dark purple mist were everywhere instead, then he was staring at a strange face where Wraith should be. It was a face he didn't recognise but strangely he felt that he had seen it before, it then disappeared and was replaced by another face, this one felt out of place and looked like an old person, it too was replaced quickly by a third face, this one appeared to be young but crazy – at least half of it as one side of the face looked like it was shy. When it disappeared Angel was left staring at a new face, this one seemed cold hearted and threatening yet also sad and guilty, he felt as if he knew it from somewhere yet he didn't know where. Then the faces combined into one and Angel was filled with painful energy that threatened to destroy his mind, he tried to scream but couldn't. Suddenly he felt himself in a new place, or rather in one of Wraith's memories, in fact two played out before him in order.

* * *

 _The sky was bright blue and little to no clouds were about, everything appeared to be normal in the streets of the Imperial City as citizens of all ages walked down the streets and into markets and different stores and taverns, everyone was to their own agendas. They were concerned about the recent barbarian attacks on the northern border due to the Battle of Iron-Shield Redoubt a few years ago but the Empire had managed to beat off several barbarian tribes and bribed others into submission, yet there was still war upon the frontier as Lothar had been reported missing by imperial spies and several of the tribes to the far north and north-west were preparing for war once again. It was because of this that a council had been assembled in the Imperial Palace, but instead of it being held in the throne room the council had taken place a much more open and bigger room, this one had an open roof and was of a circular structure there were multiple platforms that could contain at least one person, at the back centre was a throne, all of it was made of stone and marble with a red carpet coming from the throne._

 _Sitting on the throne was a middle-aged man with a small black beard and short black hair, he had sky blue eyes and wore a royal regalia which consisted of a purple cloak, fur over the shoulders and a gold necklace was over his chest, purple and white robes were worn as well, this was the emperor Julian II, son of Theodosius III. On the platforms were not only the emperor's advisors but there were also governors from across the Empire as well as statesmen as well. They had been gathered to discuss the recent issues that plague the Empire._

" _The barbarian attacks upon the northern border are intensifying once more, with our forces stretched thin as it is with the pirates to the east and the patrols along the frontier with the Kingdom of Leone to the west it is harder to deal with these savages," said one man who was an advisor to the emperor._

" _Agreed, the tribes are on the move once again," commented a woman who came from the imperial province in the highlands to the south-east._

 _Several raised voices were then heard throughout the room, each one attempting to outdo the other, this caused Julian II to face-palm and sigh. They had come here to discuss not to argue. The voices then calmed down and one person, a man who governed some territory along the northern border was then heard._

" _The barbarians are not our primary concern here. How many times must I repeat myself? Emperor Julian II you must heed what the rumours say and launch some sort of investigation, there are many people and creatures heading north towards the Northern Wastelands and whatever is there will be more of a threat than the barbarians are now. Some of your people have already heeded the call and have left the Empire to find their way to the Northern Wastelands, and if nothing is done to stop it then the Empire may begin to collapse!"_

" _Huh, you're just being paranoid," laughed one of the people who were present._

 _As the debate continued on a young man, who wore clothing very similar to Julian, who stood next to the emperor watched as a blue and red glowing energy appeared in the shadows near the door, it was faint yet the young man thought it looked like someone, but as he looked again there was no one there._

" _Must be my imagination," he muttered to himself quietly._

 _At that moment everyone in the debate was listening to the so-called 'paranoid' statesman and an advisor who happened to be the one who laughed at him. "Let's keep all of this in prospective. If the rumours are true as you claim, what do you propose to do about it?" asked the advisor._

" _It is simple: the borders must be closed and no one is to set foot inside or outside the empire, no one at all," replied the statesman._

 _This caused an uproar among everyone present at the meeting, they were all used to open borders and that is how they managed to get good relations with the Kingdom of Leone. The emperor then spoke in response to the suggestion, thus silencing everyone else in the room._

" _I will not implement such actions without proof of your claims. The people of the Empire have already suffered enough in the last few years without becoming prisoners in their own lands."_

 _The young man standing next to the emperor then saw the pale blue and red lights in the shadows again, this time it was more intense and seemed to be getting closer. The emperor looked up at him quizzically. "What is it, my son?"_

 _The young man, the emperor's son, looked back at his father, but before he could speak a flashing blue, red and dark purple light enveloped from the shadows. When it disappeared soon afterwards there was a man in black clothing and his eyes were glowing red and blue. If Wraith's sudden appearance wasn't enough to freak everyone out then his eyes were enough to do so._

" _Yet prisoners they will become if nothing is to be done, o emperor," said Wraith in a calm tone._

" _What is the meaning of this?! Who are you?" demanded Julian._

" _Just a traveller, but know that a darkness is spreading from the north, the tides are turning against you and the whole world is upon the brink of war!"_

" _Enough of this madness. Guards, remove this… daemon spawn and throw it into the dungeons," ordered one advisor._

 _Two guards who were standing by stood to attention and took a hold of Wraith's shoulders, he didn't resist with force but instead managed to shrug one of their hands of one shoulder. Wraith turned his attention back to the emperor and spoke in a louder voice to him._

" _Hear me! You must hear me out! You must ready your armies and march north to the Northern Wastelands, there you must destroy the enemy!"_

" _There is nothing up there, it is a land of fire and ash, nothing can grow up there and therefore nothing can live up there. But you are right about one thing: we are all on the brink of war but it shall be we who will decide what is best for our people, not you. Now begone before I throw you out," stated Julian to Wraith._

 _Wraith looked down at the floor, his voice almost quite before it started to become more louder near the end. "I have seen many nations rise and fall, I have seen empires last for hundreds of years before they collapsed in the fires of war, and not once have I intervened to prevent anything from happening, but not this time, this is something where I must intervene. If you will not heed my words then I shall find another who will."_

 _Wraith then walked out of the room and back into the shadows, the last thing they heard him say was, "The warning has been given, their fates are now their own."_

* * *

 _The battlefield was covered in blood and corpses of the dead also littered the field, smoke rose from the once beautiful city and covered the sky in a thick black cloud, the high marble walls – once stainless – was covered in blood and scarred with battle marks, many pieces of the walls were torn asunder and were laid upon the ground in several pieces._

 _Wraith stood in the ruins of a tower upon the ruined battlements, his gaze fell upon what was left of the Imperial City, its streets filled with the shrieks of men, women and children running for their lives as they were cut down by enemy soldiers or mauled by the creatures known as ogres, even half-breeds – a mixed race of ogre and human – roamed the streets and sought out anyone to kill and maim. Wraith sighed at the carnage and watched at the Imperial Palace collapsed into rubble. Unlike anyone else Wraith's eyesight was the best and he could see further away than anyone else could before or since._

 _Thus he watched as Lothar the Bloodthirsty emerged from the ruins of the Imperial Palace with a wicked grin on his face and the head of emperor Julian II in his free hand, Severia the Stoic was with barbarian mercenaries and was giving them their pay, a grey robed man with a mask upon his face and a curved spiked sword for a right arm – this was Kharzark the Interrogator – stood amidst the burning blood coloured streets and stared at the slaughter, piles of corpses were around his feet. As Wraith looked further away at the battlements he caught sight of Agandur's Right Hand standing still, his cloak flowed in the wind and his yellow eyes shined brightly as smoke flowed before him._

 _As Wraith sighed to himself he heard footsteps coming from behind him, he turned around and saw the son of Julian, a young man by the name of Uriel, standing in the doorway. The young prince's imperial general armour was stained heavily with blood and his short sword was notched at the hilt, a large oval shaped shield was strapped to his back and his helmet was missing, his sky blue eyes were full of grief and his black hair was scruffy and matted._

" _It's over, the Empire is finished," said Uriel with a disheartened tone. "We should have headed your warning over two years ago."_

" _What has been done cannot be undone, we must make do with what we currently have," remarked Wraith. "Where is Juvia Red-Axe? I lost sight of her a while back when the enemy crashed through the walls."_

 _Uriel shrugged. "I don't know, last I saw her she was leading rallying what was left of the Imperial Guard and the soldiers to lead them in a final defence, I doubt she is alive."_

 _Wraith sighed. "At any rate we cannot stay here any longer, the Empire is about to fall apart and the enemy will not stop. They may rest for a day or two but their war machine will not rest until the Dark Lord's influence rests all over this world. Anyway, we should head east to the lowland provinces, they still hold strong against the darkness and if we get you to the city of Torraine you might be able to claim your father's throne from there."_

" _I hope you're right. If I ever become emperor then I will appoint you as Commander-in-Chief of all armed forces in what is left of the Empire."_

" _As you wish, but first we have to get there, and that will take several days by horse if we're swift and don't stop along the road."_

" _Then let us be as quick as the Gods on their errands and be on our way, we have to get there as soon as possible. Let's hope that survivors from here also decide to head to Torraine."_

 _Wraith nodded. "Alright then, lets move out!"_

* * *

Angel then felt himself emptied of Wraith's unknown energy and his mind felt comfortable once again, he looked at Wraith and then at everything around him: it looked just like how it did before Wraith put his hand on Angel's head.

"Wh...why did you stop?" asked Angel, he was panting for air as he spoke. "It...it was explaining s...so much..."

"If I had continued then your mind would have turned to mush, in fact you're lucky that you can still think in that brain of yours," replied Wraith as he put his gloved hands in his pockets. "Rest for a moment before we get down to your training, I believe that you have much to learn, especially concerning the move 'Darkside'."

"How do you know about that?"

"I just do, that is all you need to know. But tell me, do you know anything about Darkside?"

Angel shrugged, meaning that he knew about it being a combat technique but apart from that he didn't really know a lot about it. It was Victor who answered the question for him.

"Darkside is a rare combat technique that isn't used these days due to the risks of using it, the user is granted extreme power in the areas of strength and agility but it comes at a cost: corruption. The more corrupted the user is the more likely they will lose their mind and turn into a savage and uncontrollable monster. This move hasn't been used for centuries, in fact the last time it was used was by a CPU of Lastation and do you know what happened to her? She became too corrupted and turned into a monster, she then killed a bunch of her citizens before she was put down by the other CPUs."

Angel was rather surprised at the information that came out of Victor's mouth and had become interested in what happened next rather than the risks of using such a dangerous combat move. "What happened afterwards?"

"Well, two of the other CPUs were killed in the fight while the last one, who finished of the corrupted CPU monster, died of her wounds not long afterwards. Then came the period known as the Interregnum, this period lasted for decades before the Goddesses we have today were born by the power of the Shares."

"How do you know all of this?"

"Lets just say that I have had access to Lady Histoire's tome a while back and that is how I found all of that information, plus I asked her about it."

"You're friends with Histoire?" Angel was honestly surprised about that.

"You could say that, I suppose."

"Barring any more interruptions, Angel, get some rest before I train the hell out of you. By the end of this day you will know how to use Darkside so well that you might as well be called 'Angel the Darkside User'," Wraith interrupted their conversation.

Angel fell to the ground and sat on the snowy grass without a care in the world before looking up at Wraith. "How the hell do plan to teach me Darkside?"

"Because I know how to use it, though it's been over a century since I last used such a move," replied Wraith.

Angel shrugged to himself before he laid back onto the ground and stared at the sky, the clouds were beginning to clear away and the midday sun shined brightly, it seemed like a good day to learn a move that was a double-edged sword.

* * *

 **A/N: Sorry for the late update, normally I would have gotten at least two chapters a week done but I had some issues that occurred and needed my attention. Thanks to Vince Kenneth806 (A Wattpad author) for his OC. I'm glad to see people still reading this and I extend my thanks to you all for sticking to it this long, plus I would like to say that in relation to the flat vs big argument I personally believe in boobie equality, just like a certain perverted YouTuber. See you all with the next chapter.  
**


	34. A Date with a Goddess

**Chapter 33: A Date with a Goddess**

Angel came back to the Basilicom late after dinner and was covered in sweat, snow, small tatters of his blood and he looked to be completely worn out. Every single time he was asked about where he was and what happened to him he only replied with one word: "Training", Angel would not say where he had been or who he had been training with, but he looked like an utter wreck. The only news that was of interest to everyone was a prison break in Lastation that involved a heavily armoured man and a certain person, or robot, called Anonydeath, Noire was very much annoyed at this turn of events and all attempts in finding them had failed, thus she was now wary every time she stepped foot into her room in case there were hidden cameras.

The next day was very similar as Angel left early in the morning and didn't come back to the Basilicom until sunset, then he was forced to read to Rom and Ram until they fell asleep as punishment for not hanging out with them, this amused Brian to no end. Finally the sixth day of their week in Lowee came about, Angel had disappeared once again for his supposed training and a thought struck Brian as he sat down and began to eat a plate full of toasted bread with bacon and mushrooms on the side in the Basilicom's dining hall.

 _Huh, our week in Lowee is coming to an end. A pity, I've gotten used to the place and the cold climate as well. I don't think Rom and Ram are going to like the idea of me and Angel leaving for whichever nation we're going to next, I'll miss them as well as this place and Mina, even Blanc too. Peculiar, I never thought I would miss someone._

Brian was stirred out of his thoughts when he felt someone tugging at his shirt, he looked around to see Rom looking at him with puppy dog eyes and she held crayons and pieces of paper in her hands. "Um, did you need something, Rom?"

"Not really, but… um, can you draw with me please?" asked Rom, her puppy dog eyes were making an effect on Brian.

Finally he relented to the cute attack on his pride. "Well, I suppose I can draw with you if you so wish."

Rom smiled happily at him and, after a bit of whimpering, Brian sat Rom on his lap and they placed the drawing equipment onto the wooden table in front of them, then together the two of them began to draw pictures. Brian was forced to stop eating so he could draw with the young CPU Candidate, but it was something that he didn't mind in the end. As they drew together Rom looked at Brian and a sense of concern was all over her face.

"Hey, big brother, do you think there is something wrong with Blanc?" Rom asked the Ancient.

"Huh? Something wrong with her? Now that you mention it she did seem rather worn out and tired yesterday, from that I guess that there might be something wrong with her," replied Brian.

"I thought so. When Ram and I asked her about it big sister kept saying that she was fine, but I was sure that she was lying. Why would Blanc lie to us?"

"If something is wrong with Blanc then she wouldn't want anyone to be involved in her problems, sometimes it is best to leave things be."

"But every time I see her she is always looking worried, and that makes me sad. Can you please make her better?"

Brian looked at Rom and her sad face, a tear was forming in the corner of one of her eyes. Brian was dreading if Rom was going to use her puppy dog eyes to force him to check up on Blanc.

 _Not the puppy dog eyes, please not the puppy dog eyes, they are my weakness!_

Unfortunately for Brian's mind Rom used the puppy dog eye technique on him, causing the Ancient to groan to himself in silence as his pride was damaged. "Fine then, I'll check up on her after I'm done eating and drawing with you. How's that?"

Rom beamed at him with a happy smile, it was a smile that made a mark on Brian's heart and stayed there, it wasn't as much of an impact as Blanc's cute smile but seeing Rom be happy was enough for the Ancient to break out with a very small smile of his own.

* * *

Blanc sat in front of her computer screen and stared intently at it, the deadline of the rookie novel contest was at the end of the day and she still had a few chapters left to write, plus the storyline was beginning to make no sense to her. The CPU of Lowee looked over it again and glared at the screen venomously.

"Grrr, this is getting annoying! The plot isn't making sense any more!" growled Blanc. "The hell am I supposed to do with this damn novel now?!"

As Blanc raged against her computer and yelled in anger a hand slipped underneath her hat and started to pat her head, this caught her by surprise and her anger was now directed at the owner of the hand.

"Who's there?! This isn't the time for head patting!" yelled Blanc. But despite her protests, which almost got violent, she began to calm down and eventually the glaring red temper of hers evaporated. When Blanc turned around she saw the owner of the hand: Brian. He was looking down at her with a questioning expression.

"What's going on, Blanc?" he asked her. "Rom and Ram say that there is something wrong with you, care to tell me what it is?"

"There is nothing wrong with me, Brian, nothing at all."

Even as Blanc said that Brian could tell there was something wrong with her, her face couldn't lie. "Blanc, your face is telling a different story. Your sisters are worried about you if you haven't already guessed, Rom was even beginning to cry when she told me."

Blanc looked away and sighed heavily. "Alright then, I'll tell you. I'm stressed to my limits, I'm… I'm writing a novel for a contest and the plot for the story isn't making sense, at this rate I'll have to rewrite the whole damn thing. That's my problem. Happy now?"

"Why ask if I am happy? I hate it when people are stressed for any reason, and I know what it is like to be stressed out."

Blanc looked back up at Brian and saw the expression on his face, she read it as someone who was actually concerned despite his usual frown. Although it made sense to her that Brian would know what it was like to be stressed due to his personality.

"Well, since you know what it is like to be stressed do you happen to know a way to de-stress? I'm open to any suggestions."

Brian put on his thinking face and rubbed his chin with his free hand, his other hand was still patting Blanc's head which she seemed to not mind at all. After several seconds of waiting Brian finally replied with a suggestion.

"Hmm, how about going outside for a while to get some fresh air? It might clear your mind so you can think clearly and try to resolve the problem with your novel."

"Huh, that doesn't sound so bad I guess, yes, I'll walk around Lowee for a while and clear my mind. Care to join me?"

"Yeah, sure, I wouldn't mind going along with you." Brian had now stopped patting Blanc's head and had re-straightened her hat.

"Alright then, it is settled, its a date."

"Very well th- wait, a date?"

Blanc slightly blushed as he said that. "Um, yeah, if you don't like it then I can call it something else if you want."

The Ancient rubbed the back of his head and felt a bit nervous. "Well, I'm not against it being called a date if you want to call it that, I was just a bit surprised that's all."

Blanc gave him a nervous smile. "Okay then, I'll meet you outside the Basilicom for the d-d-date."

Brian couldn't help notice that Blanc stammered with the last word, not that it surprised him at all as it did sound like a date, people on the streets would even confuse it for such a thing. He nodded to Blanc and left her room, then he headed straight towards his room to get his coat and hat, he decided to leave his weapons behind since he wouldn't need them. As he walked down the long hallways he encountered Rom and Ram, they ran up to him and smiled at him as Rom asked him a question.

"Hey, big brother, did you ask Blanc what was wrong with her?"

"Yes I did, and it appears that it is stress from trying to finish her novel in time for the end of the day," replied Brian.

"Oh, so that's what it is," said Ram with some relief. "So anyway, what're up to now?"

"I have to get ready for a date, if you can call it that."

"Ooooo, big bro is getting romantic is he?" Ram couldn't help but grin after she said that. "Who's the lucky girl?"

"Your sister."

There was a minute of silence before both Rom and Ram shouted at the top of their lungs. "WHHHHAAAAAAAAAT?!"

Brian was taken back by the outcry and jumped a bit as he held his ears closed until their shouting was over, it was obvious that they hadn't expected an answer like that. "Seriously?! You're dating Blanc? Wow, you must be a smooth operator," exclaimed Ram.

"I'm not dating her, I'm just helping her de-stress for the day so don't get any funny ideas," grumbled Brian.

"Yeah sure, whatever you say," responded Ram with a cheeky grin.

"Good luck," said Rom.

"Thanks." Brian then continued on his way back to his room as the twins left him, but he could help but feel nervous at the prospect of spending a day in Lowee with just Blanc, it wasn't as if it was a real date or anything. Was it?

* * *

Blanc and Brian walked side-by-side down the streets of Lowee, neither one of them looked at each other due to nervousness despite both agreeing that it wasn't an official date. In all her long life Blanc had never thought of being in such a situation with anyone yet here she was with someone who had lived in another dimension, when she caught a glimpse of Brian she noticed how he kept looking at all the buildings instead of her, plus one of his hands would twitch before switching to the other hand and sometimes both hands would twitch at the same time. Blanc had always wondered why he did that and perhaps she could get some answers out of him. But she could not explain why she herself felt nervous, after all she had told herself over and over again that this was just something that Brian had suggested to clear her mind, but was there more to that? He never called it a date yet she did.

 _Am I just thinking about it to much? I think I am, Brian told me that this was for me to clear my mind so I could de-stress and be prepared to finish my novel off. But I do wonder, why I did I decide to call it a date? Well, guess I shouldn't get too concerned about, instead I should just enjoy the moment._

As Blanc looked up at one of the stores they were about to pass by she noticed that it was a brand new store, a bookshop in fact. The little goddess stopped and tugged on Brian's coat, causing him to stop and turn around at her.

"Hmm? Is there something wrong?" he asked.

"No, I just want to check this place out," replied Blanc. "It's a brand new bookshop that opened up in Lowee a few days ago, I've been wanting to come here to check it out but never found the time. If you don't mind, can we go and take a look at it?"

"Sure, I've been itching to take a look at the bookshops around here."

The two of them entered the little store and found themselves in a friendly environment, the walls were of a greyish white colour and row upon row of bookshelves were aligned across the place in neat order. The books were assigned into different categories ranging from picture books, children stories, fiction, non-fiction and the small section in a dark corner labelled 'Adult Section'. There was even a small area in the store for people to sit down and read. Not many people roamed the bookshop and thus it gave the store a sense of peace and quiet, which was something Blanc was quite relieved about.

"How about we split up and take a look around the place for a while and see what books interest us, then we'll meet at the entrance in thirty minutes," suggested Blanc.

"I'll go along with that," responded Brian.

"Alright then, see you in thirty minutes."

The two of them split up and roamed the bookshop at the various different books that were available, despite it being new the store had a large variety in display and sections of the bookshelves were empty, it seemed to Brian's mind that business was going well for the owners. As Brian passed one of the shelves he realised he was in the non-fiction area of the bookshop, he looked at one of the shelves and, with a shrug, started to look at the different books that were there.

After he looked at one book and put it back on the shelves he felt someone tap his back with a finger, when the Ancient turned around he saw a small boy at around Rom and Ram's height, he had short spiky light bluish-grey hair and wore a zipped up blue jacket and black pants with white and grey shoes, he stared at Brian for a bit before speaking.

"Um, are you the one everyone is calling Shadow Walker?" the boy asked.

"Yeah, that's me, who wants to know?" responded Brian.

"Well, I'm just surprised to see you around here is all, I never thought of you as a person who liked books."

"You have an opinion of me? Heh, guess even the kids of Gamindustri have one as well."

"But my opinion is different, I think you're cool."

Brian was astounded when the kid said that, he had thought that everyone either didn't care about him or just didn't like him and now with Abnes running her mouth all over the place in Planeptune and on radio to the other nations his popularity and respect had gone down the drains, though he never had either of the two to begin with. So to hear a complete stranger, a kid, telling him that he was cool made the Ancient utterly confused.

"Why do you think I'm cool?" Brian asked the kid.

"I've seen you with the CPU Candidates at the amusement park and the two of them looked to be enjoying themselves, so if those two are happy around you then you have to be cool," explained the kid.

Brian knelt down and looked at the kid straight in the face. "Tell me, what is your name?"

"Um, my name is Gregory."

"Well, Gregory, it has been nice talking to you, and thanks for saying I'm cool. Just so you know: never believe everything you hear on the radio or at rallies held by strange kid loving girls."

He then patted Gregory on the head before standing up and walking away, leaving the kid in a dazed state as he watched Brian leave to another section of the bookshop.

* * *

Blanc stood outside the entrance with a bag held in her hands and waited for Brian to leave the bookshop, she didn't know what was taking him this long to pick a book but it had been past thirty minutes, thirty three minutes to be exact. There weren't many people in the store so she didn't know why he had decided to take his time. After waiting for an extra few minutes Brian emerged from the store with a small bag in his hand.

"Hey there Blanc, sorry for making you wait," said Brian as he approached her.

"Its alright, I didn't wait that long," replied Blanc with a sigh. "Anyway, should we get going?"

Brian nodded and together the two of them walked down the street, the atmosphere between the two was silent once again. People who walked past them couldn't help but notice their Goddess' choice in company and a few had questioning looks on their faces, this didn't go unnoticed by either Brian or Blanc.

"Guess they still don't trust me," said Brian quietly.

"There isn't much to do about that I'm afraid, though at least they aren't throwing glares at you," commented Blanc. "Maybe the Guild quests you did yesterday managed to soften them up a bit."

"Perhaps. Anyway, what book did you get?"

Blanc rummaged through her bag and took out a book that read 'A Dummies Guide to Gamindustri', Brian looked at Blanc with a puzzled expression to which she stammered a bit before speaking. "I thought that it might help you, I know it's a bit late for it but you still need to get used to Gamindustri and the other nations, so I got this guide book for you."

She then handed the book over to Brian, he took it and smirked at Blanc as he grabbed the book from his bag. "I guess we thought of the same thing when it came to giving books to one another. Here, I got this one for you."

Blanc took hold of it and read the title, 'A Guide to Cooking', she looked up at Brian and smiled at him. "Thank you, I've been meaning to teach myself how to cook so this should do the trick."

"No problem, Blanc, it's the least I could do for you."

The two of them continued to walk down the street until they reached a small coffee shop, since it was around midday Blanc suggested if they could have lunch at the coffee shop, which Brian agreed to. The little coffee shop wasn't big yet it was big enough to contain a fair amount of people, they walked up to the counter and ordered their lunch, Brian ordered a spinach and cheese pastry while Blanc ordered a tomato, mustard, cheese and ham sandwich. Brian and Blanc then sat down at a table by a large window overlooking a park full of snow and trees, people frolicked in the snow and ran around doing whatever young kids played. They sat opposite of each other and were reading the books they had given each other before their food arrived.

"Mmm *chomp* *chomp*, this is good," said Blanc. She then took another small bite out of her sandwich and swallowed.

Unlike Blanc, who took small bites and savoured the taste of her meal, Brian took large bites and within eight minutes he had almost finished his pastry, the only reason he hadn't already finished was because he was looking at Blanc's sandwich and wondered what it tasted like. Blanc noticed it and, with a slight blush, held her sandwich over near his mouth.

"I can tell you want a bite, so I will let you take a small bite," said Blanc.

Brian hesitated before leaning forward and took a small bite from one of the corners, he then leaned away and chewed before swallowing it. He looked at Blanc and nodded in approval. "I like it, tastes pretty good. W-Would you like the rest o-of my pastry?"

Brian got really nervous as he asked Blanc, which didn't go unnoticed, but she overlooked it and gladly took what was left of Brian's meal and devoured it in one mouthful. Blanc looked at Brian and smiled.

"I like this as well, I'll have to order this the next time I happen to be here," said Blanc.

Brian nodded again and his left hand began to twitch, causing Blanc to focus her attention to it, when Brian noticed this he hid his hand under the table and out of their sight. With a sigh Blanc looked straight at Brian's face and became determined to know why he twitched all the time.

"Brian, can you please tell me why you twitch? I know that you don't want to tell anyone and that it might be a bit personal for you, but if it is something that can be solved then I might be able to help."

Brian looked down at the table and refused to make eye contact with Blanc. "I understand that you want to help, but it isn't as simple as that."

"Why? Don't you trust me?"

"No, it isn't that at all, I trust you completely. I just… well, I can't tell you because I don't really know why I twitch. I visited a doctor once and they said that there were two possibilities: the first was that my nerves that connect from my brain to all around my body are, in effect, shit. The second possible reason is that I may have suffered some sort of traumatic stress disorder back in my younger years but have no memory of it."

He sounded depressed as he spoke and Blanc felt only pity for him, yet Brian continued talking. "It has even got more worse ever since I went on that damn quest."

"What quest would that be?"

Brian looked up and suddenly felt as if he said too much. "I… I don't really want to tell you."

Blanc stared at Brian without blinking for some time before standing up and sitting herself right next to him on his left, much to Brian's further surprise she grabbed a hold of his left hand and clasped it tightly. When he looked at her he could see that her face was red with embarrassment.

"Please Brian, I just want to help you and you aren't giving me the information that I need to know how best I can help you. Please trust me like you said you do."

Brian sighed before locking his eye sight directly at Blanc. "Fine, I'll tell you. The quest I referred to was one I did back in Planeptune a day before I came here. I was looking in a ruined village and I felt uneasy, then I found a small cut in a wall and once I touched it my sight became clouded and I… I had a vision. It was an event from the Ancient Era that I am sure, it had two children who had lost their parents due to war, the village was under attack and an old man said that the two children were to be the last of the Ancients. You're the first person that I've told about this."

Blanc was shocked at what she heard, the mere fact that Brian had kept this to himself and didn't tell anyone was a shocker but what he saw also had Blanc in a surprised state, she wasn't sure how to respond to it. Most people would dismiss it as utter nonsense but over the last few centuries Blanc had come to realise that no one should dismiss anything, no matter how outlandish it may seem.

"I'm not sure how to respond to that, and I'm sure I know why you kept it a secret. But why would that vision make your twitching worse?" asked Blanc, her voice filled with concern.

"Well, I'm not entirely sure but for some reason the two children in that vision remind me of something… something that I don't remember, but I'm guessing that they might be my parents… my real parents," replied Brian in a quiet tone. "The girl had the exact same smile as you do and that was too weird, that's why I acted like that around you every time you smiled. But why? Why did I get that vision? Why me of all people? So many questions and no bloody damn answers!"

Brian was starting to get agitated and he glared at the table while his arms began to twitch violently, what happened next astounded him: Blanc hugged him in a tight grip around his chest and back. He looked at Blanc with a puzzled expression as his temper cooled down, when she looked up at him her face was mixed with pity, concern as well as embarrassment.

"It's okay, Brian, it's okay. You have helped me with my problem so let me help you with yours," Blanc said calmly and softly, her cheeks flushed in bright red.

Blanc then proceeded to snuggle her head against his chest, Brian's face was red yet he did nothing to prevent it from happening, instead his left arm acted on its own and hugged Blanc. He scratched the back of her head and together the two of them remained silent. Both failed to see a man in the corner of the coffee shop glancing at them whenever he found the time to do so, it was Victor and he was drinking a cup of tea with three biscuits on a small plate, his cane was leaning against a chair beside him and his top hat was on the table. Victor took a long sip from his tea cup before grinning at Brian and Blanc.

"Now this is interesting, I'm sure Angel, and possibly even Wraith, would like to hear about this once I get back up to Lone Hill," Victor mumbled to himself with his grin unbroken.

His attention was shattered when he noticed someone looking at the two of them as well, it was a woman from what Victor could tell, she had grey hair, blue eyes and wore a large grey coat with the collar pointing upwards, the coat was buttoned up but Victor could see the steel plated leg armour and boots. She had too had a cup of tea and seemed to have almost finished it. The strange woman looked away and turned her gaze towards Victor, who looked back down at the table. With a sigh the woman stood up and walked over to him, he felt slightly nervous but kept his cool as she sat down in front of him on the other side of the table.

"Well, acquaintance of Wraith, how is the tea?" she asked coldly.

"I'm guessing you must be Severia the Stoic then," said Victor, unheeding her question. "What, pray tell, are you doing out here and why?"

"I'm here to drink the available tea, like you. Though I have been quite lonely out here, it is rather dull if you ask me, though I'm sure you are used to that by now. Or are you?"

Victor looked grimly at her as he gritted his teeth. "You know nothing of loneliness, nothing at all. I don't care if you come from another dimension and have suffered some pain and misery in your life you cannot and will not understand what true loneliness feels like."

"Huh, sounds like I found some resentment that I can use to my advantage, good. Remember this: stay out of our way and there will be no trouble. Now then, I'm off, and you better do the same if you want to stay alive, if we meet again you will never live to see another dawn."

Victor said nothing but watched as Severia stood up and walked away, once she left the coffee shop the top hat wearing man drank the rest of his tea, grabbed his cane and walked out. He was no longer in the mood for enjoying himself and headed down the snowy streets, his destination was Lone Hill, he had now decided to help Wraith as best he could in driving Severia and her Dark Followers from Lowee.

"The storm is about to burst," mumbled Victor to himself. "The darkness has fallen over us all, there will be bloodshed before the end."

* * *

The day had gone quickly for Brian and Blanc, after they left the coffee shop they had walked around Lowee and visited the various bookshops and libraries in the city, then the sun had begun to set and the two of them agreed to return to the Basilicom. As they drew near their destination Blanc looked up at Brian and smiled at him.

"Thanks for today, Brian, you've been a great help," said Blanc in a happy tone.

"I could say the same for you," commented Brian. "You managed to cheer me up a bit, thanks for that."

"My pleasure."

They walked up to the Basilicom and entered the main door, once they stood in the hallway Blanc sighed and looked at Brian. "I better get my novel finished for the end of the day, now that my mind is clear I believe I am able to finish it in time."

"I hope you do, though if it is possible can I read it when you're finished with it?"

"Uh, sure, I'll see what I can do."

As Brian nodded and was about to walk down the hallway to find his room he heard Blanc cough for his attention, he turned around and saw that she was red in the cheeks and was looking away from him. "Um, can you lean down for a second?"

"Sure, why not." Brian then leaned down and what happened next was something he did not expect from Blanc. She moved forward and kissed him on his right cheek. It lasted a few seconds before she stopped and looked at him straight in the eyes, her face was flushed in bright red and her hands trembled.

"Th-th-that was, um, that was a thank you, for everything you've done so far," stammered Blanc. She then walked away down the hallway quickly, leaving a stunned Brian behind.

When he got over the surprise he blinked several times before he noticed Mina had watched the entire event unfold, he looked over at her and he noticed that she was chuckling. The Ancient twitched a bit before walking off to his room.

* * *

"And there, now it's completed," Blanc told herself in a relieved tone. She then sent a digital copy of the novel via email to the rookie novel contest overseer and hoped for the best. "I wonder if Brian will like it, I hope he does."

As her thoughts turned towards Brian she wondered where he was in the Basilicom, at that same moment Brian was standing out on the balcony and overlooked the city below as the moon settled in the night sky, everything was quiet and peaceful, but something seemed off for him.

"It's quiet, almost too quiet," he mumbled to himself. "I feel uneasy about this."

"It is but a deep breath before the plunge," said a voice coming from behind him. Brian turned around and saw Wraith standing near him, the Ancient was surprised to see him but showed no signs of it.

"What do you mean?" asked Brian.

"Don't you feel it? A sense of uneasiness? You must feel it."

"Yeah, I feel uneasy about… well I'm not sure what, but something is wrong."

"That is your sixth sense telling you that danger is around. Ancients were said to have a sixth sense and that was knowing when danger was around them. Therefore it is safe to say that we're being watched by unfriendly eyes."

Brian glanced around him but saw nothing, yet he could feel eyes watching him form afar and felt uneasy about it all. "So, Wraith, what do we do now?"

"We wait until something happens, just keep your sword sharp and your wits about you and you'll be fine. I hope."

As Wraith finished saying that Blanc's voice could be heard from inside. "Hey, Brian, I've finished the novel if you want to read it."

Brian walked over to the doorway and smiled. "Looks like I gotta go. By the way, have you been… wait, where'd he go?"

The Ancient looked around and noticed that Wraith had disappeared and left no message or any signs of him being there on the balcony, Brian sighed and shook his head before walking through the doorway and entered the Basilicom to go to Blanc and read her novel. It had been a good day for him and he had seen a side to Blanc that no one had seen before, he had to admit to himself that Blanc was a cute girl and he soon realised that his own personality was undertaking a small change. He was becoming a bit more open and more tolerant towards touching others, it probably was because of his exposure to the Goddesses he reasoned. With a slight chuckle he walked his way down the hallways.

 _Time to find Blanc and read her novel, I hope it is as good as she claims. Tomorrow better be a good day despite what Wraith said, and I better make the most out of it as it is the last day that Angel and I are staying here. But I have to wonder, what danger is out there watching us? Could it be something related to the Dark Captains? Possibly, we haven't seen them for a while. If they do come here then they'll have me to reckon with!_

* * *

 **A/N: Got some Brian x Blanc moments here, had to take inspiration from one of the audio CDs that I found on YouTube to create some of this chapter. At any rate leave suggestions if you want to and we'll see what happens in the next chapter, which will be out sometime next week hopefully. See ya next time.  
**


	35. The Storm Erupts

**Chapter 34: The Storm Erupts**

The seventh and last day for Brian and Angel had arrived, but unlike the previous days the morning was rather cloudy and hardly a beam of sunlight could pass through the dense clouds, Angel immediately foretold bad portents because of this but only because he managed to freak Rom and Ram out to a degree. Apart from that everyone noticed that things between Brian and Blanc were either awkward while at other times were plain happy, especially when Blanc cooked breakfast for Brian and asked if he liked it, he told her that it was good despite it being, well, crap, but he couldn't bring himself to dishearten the CPU of Lowee. As for her novel, Brian thought it to be interesting and he had no idea that Blanc was into slices of romance, although they never managed to finish reading it.

It was early in the morning when Rom and Ram had left the Basilicom with Mina to wander around Lowee while Angel disappeared to do his training with Wraith along with some advice from Victor, meanwhile Blanc was trying out recipes from her new cookbook while adding additions to it, Brian on the other hand was doing some quests for the Lowee Guild. The main reason for this was simple: the first was for a supply of credits and the second was to put him in good favour with the citizens of Lowee. The Ancient had undertaken the task of exterminating the deadly monsters that were found and keep everyone safe from threats, so far that seemed to be going well although several people still didn't like to see him around the Guild, but apart from that a few had now found him to be a reasonable person but still didn't hold him in high regard, Brian found that quite acceptable. There was a problem though: there weren't as many monster extermination quests as there had been, in fact the monster population had been declining, or perhaps even disappearing.

This meant two things for everyone in Lowee and the Guild: the first was the increased safety that had now inadvertently arrived, the second was a decrease in the number of quests and therefore profit for those who worked at the Guild. Some wondered where all the monsters had gone to, if they had disappeared that is. Brian was among those who believed that the monsters of Gamindustri who inhabited the country of Lowee were missing, and after turning in an extermination quest he decided to find the only person who would have an understanding about the situation: Wraith.

"If I was Wraith, where would I be?" Brian asked himself as he left the Guild and walked down the street.

It was approaching close to lunchtime and the sky was still cloudy as Brian roamed the streets in search of Wraith, as be passed by people he noticed that they had stopped glaring at him, at least nearly all of them anyway, so that was an improvement. But as he continued to walk down the streets he noticed that people were hurrying towards on of the parks and shouting could be heard, Brian thought that it was some sort of rally that Abnes had set up but something was different, he could sense it. Brian then heard someone shouting at him and he saw a small kid run up to him.

"Shadow Walker! Shadow Walker!" shouted the small kid.

"Is that… Gregory? Oi, Gregory, what's going on?" asked Brian as Gregory stopped in front of him and gasped for air.

"The… the CPU Candidates and their Oracle… they've been captured!" yelled Gregory as he panted.

The news stunned Brian, he had heard that the last time that the Candidates were captured they had been with the other CPUs in the amusement park, but that had been a long time ago and they captor had been a robot called CFW Trick, the Lickorist of Lowee. It couldn't have been him as no sightings of him had been seen so who could it be? Brian glared at the ground and clenched his fists.

"Who or what captured them?" asked Brian, his anger starting to show.

"Several robots, mainly small ones, busted into the park and captured them swiftly," replied Gregory. "Apart from that there were no other casualties. Why is this happening?"

"I've got a good feeling as to who had ordered this: Severia, damn that bitch! Gregory, did you see where they headed? How long ago did this happen?"

The kid shook his head. "Afraid I didn't get a good look as to where they went, smoke canisters were littered all over the place and obscured our view, plus there were no footprints. As for how long ago it was, well… it actually a while ago, I've been looking all over for you up till now."

The Ancient growled and his eyes flared blue, Gergory look at him with trembling fear before Brian looked at him. "Fear me not, my anger isn't against you, it is against those that have captured the Candidates and their Oracle. I have to tell Blanc about this, so excuse me."

Gregory nodded and watched as Brian ran towards the Basilicom, he noticed that the Ancient referred to their CPU by her human name and not her HDD name. "Guess he is friends with her after all, maybe he's even cooler than I thought."

As Brian ran down the streets towards the Basilicom he noticed that people would constantly glance at him whenever they got the chance to do so, whether it was because of hatred, dissatisfaction, not caring about him or for other reasons Brian did not know, nor did he care. His mind was bent on getting to Blanc and making sure she was okay before coming up with a battle plan. He continued to run down a street until he turned a corner and his sight was placed upon a top hat wearing man with a dark brown trench coat, the man held a cane in his right hand and his left hand was in one of his coat's pockets. The man held his right arm up and beckoned Brian over to him. Once Brian stopped running he approached the man and frowned at him.

"What is it? I'm busy and time is of the essence," Brian said to him in an annoyed tone.

"You are Brian the Shadow Walker, are you not?" asked the man.

"Yes I am. Who wants to know?"

"I do, I was sent to find you and make sure nothing happens to you as we make our way to the Basilicom."

"Who are you, why are you heading to the Basilicom and what is it that you want with me?"

"I am known as Victor, traveller of Gamindustri, I've been running an errand to find you for a while and I almost gave up hope until you ran around that corner. As to why I'm heading to the Basilicom, well, it it part of my errand and all will make sense when we get there."

Brian sighed. "Fine then, but you better be good at running."

"I assure you I am an excellent runner. Now, let us make haste!"

During their run to the Basilicom Brian wasn't quite sure about his opinion of Victor, almost all of the questions that the Ancient asked Victor about he deemed to be too personal and rather preferred to not answer them, in fact he seemed distant despite his helpful nature. Onlookers watched the two men run towards their destination swiftly and could only guess what was going on, a few probably guessed correctly what it was that they were up to.

Once they reached the Basilicom Brian realised that not all was well, the guards had grim faces and many were depressed, once Brian and Victor entered the Basilicom the Ancient soon realised how serous the situation was. Standing up down the hallway was Wraith and Angel who were talking to each other quietly with one of the guards. The guard was either frightened or full of grief. Brian and Victor approached the three of them before Wraith noticed them and looked at the two of them.

"Ah, good to see you two arrived," said Wraith.

"What's the issue?" asked Victor who stopped in front of Wraith while Brian stood next to him.

"Hold on a moment, where's Blanc?" Brian asked everyone.

The guard shuffled uncomfortably while Angel looked away, Wraith sighed and looked at Brian as his eyes glowed brightly. "Well, that is one main reason why we're all here, you see… Blanc has been captured as well by Severia the Stoic. Then there is the issue of Lowee's Share Energy being stolen by the same Dark Captain."

Brian was silently calm, too calm to be sane in fact, this scared the guard and she started to back off, which was for the best as Share Energy exploded around the Ancient and his eyes flared fiercely. As his anger intensified the Share Energy became more condensed, Angel looked down at the ground around Brian and saw that the ground around his friend's feet was cracking apart and shards of Share Energy were beaming out of the ground. Brian then sprinted down the hallway, leaving the others behind.

"Where's he off too?" asked Victor.

"The Sharicite Room," replied Wraith. "Come on, we better make sure he doesn't go crazy."

Wraith, Angel and Victor ran after Brian while the guard stayed away and resumed her patrolling duties around the Basilicom, she wondered what was going to happen now. When the group finally caught up with Brian they saw him standing in the middle of the Sharicite Room in front of the actual Sharicite that contained the Share Energy of the CPUs of Lowee, the large power symbol crystal was dim and slowly dying. The Ancient stood in front of it with his right hand raised and was about to touch it.

"Hey, Brian, I reckon I know what're going to do right now," said Angel.

"Yeah, I'm gonna refill this Sharicite then I'm going to get everyone back!" responded Brian in a loud voice.

"Well get on with it then, we don't want your girlfriend, her little sisters and their Oracle to die."

"Grrr, Blanc isn't my girlfriend! Now shut up and let me do my thing!"

"Fine, but after you're done here you cannot go and fight the enemy single-handedly by yourself in a fit of pure rage," said Wraith as he walked out of the room.

"Whatever, just let me do what I have to do."

As the others walked out Brian put his hand on the Sharicite and used all of his emotions to channel the Share Energy from his hand into the crystal, the channelling process was taking up much of his willpower but the thought of his friends in captivity filled him with such anger that he managed to stand up straight and continue to fill the Sharicite with Share Energy. As he did all of this he thought of only one thing.

 _Curse the Dark Captains and all of their damn followers! I don't know if I can pass thoughts through this but if I can do that then let the CPUs hear this: I'm coming to find you and I will bring you back!_

* * *

As Brian thought of those words and attempted to restore at least some of the Sharicite a development was taking place in the fortified base of Severia the Stoic. Inside one of the large concrete buildings there was an underground level where Severia kept her prisoners, in three separate rooms were Mina, Rom, Ram and Blanc, Rom and Ram had been thrown together into one cell. However the four of them had been chained up to the wall with chains handcuffed around their wrists and ankles, smears of dirt and snow were visible on their clothes as if they had been dragged around for quiet some time. In one of these rooms was Blanc who had lost her hat along the way to the facility and looked as if she was on death's door, the loss of Share Energy had inflicted her heavily and she was almost out cold. On either side of her stood a guard and Severia herself, in her hands she held a Share Energy Container that was filled with the Share Energy of Lowee, the Dark Captain grinned at it before looking at the poor CPU.

"A pity things turned out like this, but it had to be done," said Severia in an uncaring tone. "It was easier than I expected, all that was needed to convince this wrench was a picture of her captive sisters and Oracle, now look at her. Ha."

"Um, Lady Severia, what was the point of bringing the CPUs and their Oracle with us?" asked the guard. "Since the CPUs don't have any Share Energy left they're going to die very soon."

"I know that, but that would make it all the better," replied Severia. "We have the bait, all we need to do now is wait for the fish to hook onto it."

"Er, what fish?"

"These so-called 'goddesses' and their Oracle mean a lot to the Shadow Walker, he would give his life for them, he is the fish and these wrenches are the bait. I need the Shadow Walker to come here so we can capture him alive."

"Why alive though? Is he so important that he has to be kept alive?"

"Yes, something like that, he is needed for the Dark Lord's return."

"How is that possible?"

"Where there is a will there is a way, he will concede to it whether he likes it or not. Now then—what are you doing?"

The guard was looking at Blanc closely with suspicion, after Severia asked him the question he looked back at her. "Well, I'm just suspicious right now, but I am fairly certain that White Heart should have died by now."

This caught Severia's interest and she turned her attention to what he had said. "Hmm, interesting, so this bitch should have died by now eh? I wonder..."

The Dark Captain rubbed her chin thoughtfully and gazed at the CPU of Lowee, who had listened to their conversation and was filled with dread at the prospect what going to happen to Brian. Finally Severia took her glance off Blanc and back onto the guard.

"I think the Shadow Walker must have done something with restoring their powers, but it doesn't look like they'll be able to break out. We should be fine as this plays into our hands. Now, get out there and spread the word: prepare for battle. Oh, after that take the Share Energy Container and get out of the base, then head straight to Planeptune and search around Haruno Village, hopefully you'll find Agandur's Right Hand, when you do give him the Container."

As the two of them left the large concrete cell and locked the steel door behind them Blanc looked at the ground in a fit if despair, she knew that the Sharicite had been refilled to a degree and guessed that Brian had done it, but now the problem that plagued her mind was what would happen to Brian when he found the location of the base. Suddenly as she felt a small part of her power return she heard words form in her mind.

 _I'm coming to find you and I will bring you back!_

"Brian… Brian you're an idiot, but a likeable idiot. If only I had been with Rom, Ram and Mina, or if not me then Brian instead. If you do come, Brian, then don't get yourself killed or captured, please," Blanc mumbled to herself quietly.

* * *

Brian stood outside the Basilicom alongside Angel, Wraith and Victor, they were discussing a plan of attack. Wraith had information about the whereabouts of Severia's fort as he had been fighting against her for over a week and had managed to uncover her base, the only reason he hadn't attacked was that the place had been heavily fortified and was manned with not only people who had nowhere to go but there were also some monsters under Severia's control roaming around. Brian, however, paid little attention to the battle plan and instead looked at the snowy undergrowth, his eyes then caught site of something white and blue with strands of brown and a circle with four dots in the corners: the symbol of Lowee. He stepped over to his and picked it up: it was Blanc's hat. Angel noticed what Brian was doing and noted to himself that he was still engulfed the flamelike Share Energy.

"Found something did ya?" asked Angel.

"Yeah, I did, it's Blanc's hat," replied Brian quietly.

"Oh," came the response.

With a heavy sigh Brian put Blanc's hat in a pocket in his trench coat and rejoined the conversation. Wraith was kneeling down on the ground and had made a diagram of Severia's fort in the snow coupled together with sticks and leaves to show where the buildings were and where the patrols usual roamed. The thousand year old man was pointing at a specific location that was to the north of the base.

"If we strike here then that would put us in a small advantage," said Wraith in a serious tone as he pointed at the top of the diagram. "The eastern part is covered in dense forests and is filled with all manner of barbed wire and mines, the south is the same, the west is a plain country with little trees and full of mines, the north happens to have a few hills with a rocky face to it, making it almost impossible to climb. That is our ticket to victory, Severia wouldn't guess that we'll attack from that direction."

"If it is impossible to climb why bother attacking from there?" asked Angel.

"Because the enemy will least expect an attack from there, that's why."

"How long will it take to get there?" asked Brian, his arms were crossed and his voice filled with menace.

"If we head east and then south-east in a swift manner we would make it in around… thirty to forty minutes," calculated Wraith. "Perhaps even below thirty minutes if we're quick."

"Then lets get started," said Victor.

"You're coming with us?" Angel asked the top hat wearing man,

"Yeah, just this once. Come on, we better get a move on before that Dark Captain does actually decide to kill them."

The four of them then began to run down the streets quickly towards their destination, leaving people in awe and fear in some cases when they saw Brian and Wraith. The group was silent as they continued to run out of the city and into the wilderness, they stopped several times to catch their breath as Brian and Victor found it hard to breathe after they ran for fourteen minutes straight, Angel had to take a light break while Wraith didn't seem to even break a sweat.

They had been running for less than thirty minutes before they arrived at their location: a large set of rocky snow clad hills. Without hesitation Wraith began to climb the rocks swiftly, surprising the other three who could only look on in awe. When Wraith was nearing the top – which was around fourteen feet up – he looked down and stared at the others.

"What are you three waiting for? Just get on with it," said Wraith calmly.

"How in the name of all that is godly are we supposed to climb that?!" yelled Brian.

"Keep your voice down! The enemy is just beyond these hills. Anyway, to answer your question, just do it."

Brian, Angel and Victor looked at each other before the sadist shrugged and began to climb, he almost slipped off several times before he reached the top, it was then Brian and Victor left. The two of them looked at each other and sighed before climbing the rocky hillside, much to their discomfort. When they finally reached the top of the hill they were looking down at a military base filled with several concrete buildings in various sizes, snow covered the area and small camp-fires littered the place, soldiers were patrolling the base and were prepared for battle. To the Shadow Walker it seemed old, far older than what the current era of Gamindustri had to offer. Brian looked over at Wraith, who was crouching next to him.

"Hey, Wraith, what's the history of this place?" he asked Wraith. "It feels, old, almost too old to be counted in years."

"You can feel it eh? Good, that means that your sixth sense is starting to become second nature to you. This is a refortified military base that was once used during the Ancient Era by a warlord to drive out an enemy that was feared by everyone at that time, the only reason it still looks like it's in pristine condition is that adventurers used this place for sleep and storing weapons, though that hasn't been the case since the Console War ended and it became abandoned," replied Wraith thoughtfully.

"So who was this warlord from the Ancient Era? Plus, how do you even know these things?"

"The warlord… well, all in good time, you'll know eventually, though I suppose calling that specific person a warlord isn't historically correct, even if they aren't remembered. As for knowing all of this, I'd have you know that this isn't the first time I've visited Gamindustri, though you already know that as I was once the Oracle of Tari."

Brian eyed Wraith suspiciously as the former Oracle of Tari eyed the ground below, the way down was steep and filed with jagged rocks, but it didn't seem like much of an obstacle for The Wraith as he, once again, shrugged and began to climb down carefully. Victor cringed as he watched his acquaintance attempt the climb.

"You'll get spotted if you do that," Victor pointed out to Wraith in a hushed voice.

"Oh, I know that," replied Wraith. Despite not being able to see underneath Wraith's scarf Victor was able to sense a malevolent grin under it.

Suddenly Wraith flared up in his blue and red energy, blue on his right and blood red on his left, then a dark purple aura appeared over the coloured energy and his eyes glowed evermore fiercely. "Let the blood orgy commence!" yelled Wraith.

His voice was different, there was his normal voice as well as a more womanly voice, it sounded a tad old yet not that old. He clenched his fists and a scythe appeared in his hand, then he leapt of a rock and plummeted straight into a group of soldiers down below. The drop wasn't big, it was around 10 feet.

When Wraith crashed into the middle of the group he swung his scythe in a circular motion and swiftly cut the soldiers – who numbered five altogether – in half by the waists. Wraith didn't stop to admire his handiwork and ran straight into another group of soldiers who were more prepared for a fight, they fired their weapons but failed to make a mark.

As the alarm rang throughout the base and while Wraith tore his opponents in half with his scythe Brian, Angel and Victor had climbed down the hillside and were now standing next to the corpses of Wraith's first kills, the corpse's faces were filled with shock as their organs and blood covered the snowy ground. Victor cringed at their fate and ran towards Wraith while Angel and Brian followed him.

"Brian, Angel, just remember one thing: the first kill is always the hardest," Victor told them.

"How would you know that?" asked Angel as they drew their weapons, at least Angel and Brian did.

"I just do, though I never actually killed anyone before," replied Victor as he got behind a building and cracked his knuckles.

"Oh great, a pacifist."

"Sort of, but not entirely. Angel, go and help Wraith, despite his sudden blood-lust he is still able to take great harm so cover for him. As for you, Brian, you and me are going to check each of these buildings and find the Goddesses and their Oracle."

The two young men nodded and set of in their separate directions. Angel ran across the field to where Wraith was and saw the blood that coloured the ground along with numerous corpses and heard the various battle cries coming from the east, it seemed that Wraith had made a beeline towards the heavy ammunitions depot which was the small sized concrete building. Angel ran towards the building and came face-to-face with one of the enemy soldiers, he looked surprised at the turn of events but nonetheless was ready to defend the base. Like the other soldiers he wore light armour with a helmet, shoulder pads, arm and leg guards and a fur cloak, he held a two-handed war axe and his sights were set on Angel.

The sadist charged at the enemy soldier who swung his axe at him, Angel stepped away from it tackled his opponent to the ground, he then stood up and kicked the enemy in the face before breathing in and out heavily while holding his mighty weapon in his hands, the blade was pointed towards Angel's opponent's chest. As the enemy soldier looked up he tried to reach his axe, causing Angel to bring his sword down into the man's chest quickly, large amounts of blood flowed from the chest and the mouth as the soldier gargled in his own blood and died.

"Huh, guess Victor was right, the first kill is always the hardest," mumbled Angel as he pulled his sword out of the corpse and ran towards Wraith who was getting surrounded.

Angel ran up behind a soldier and, with a cry, swung his two-handed sword into the neck of his enemy, the head hanged off the neck by a thread as the body fell to the ground. He looked over at Wraith and saw him fighting not humans but various different monsters from across Lowee and northern Planeptune, even small robots that measured around 4 feet tall with all manner of guns and blades had joined the fight. Wraith tore into the unfortunate monsters and sliced apart several dogoos and machines with his scythe. A lizard man was about to pounce on Wraith but was stopped by Angel due to a slash on the back, the lizard man turned around and snarled at the sadist who merely grinned in delight.

"This is gonna be good," growled Angel. " **Darkside!** "

A black and dark red aura then surrounded Angel, encasing his whole body as well as his sword, his eyes were glaring more ferociously than before and the aura seemed to flicker around. He rushed forward at the lizard man and swung his sword at the monster's head, the monster blocked it but the force of the impact sent the lizard man backwards, leaving an opening for Angel to cut of the monster's right arm and then stab it in the chest, killing it.

"Huh, you were no fun at all," moaned Angel in disappointment. "I hoped for better than that."

Suddenly he sensed something coming from behind him and turned around just in time to block a sword slash from one of the enemy soldiers, the soldier looked at Angel and appeared to be either surprised or shocked, but his spine shivered as Angel gave him his sadistic grin and tightened his grip on his two-handed sword.

"Having fun there are we?" asked Angel. "Well not for loooong~"

Angel smashed aside his opponent's sword and punched him in the gut, he then launched a roundhouse kick to his face and sent him flying into a nearby tree. When Angel walked over to the fallen soldier he felt a stinging pain across his right arm, he looked down and saw a deep cut across his right arm and noticed blood flowing from the wound. The sadist looked at the soldier and saw him standing up.

"Not another step, bitch," growled Angel. "You just messed up a sleeve on my coat and I ain't gonna let you get away with it."

The enemy soldier tried to reach for his sword but failed as the sadist crashed into him and punched his face repeatedly, meanwhile Wraith was issuing threats to everyone and everything that got in his way. As he sliced his scythe through an unfortunate soldier, sending their guts to fly across the field, Wraith felt the ground tremble and when he looked at a nearby warehouse he saw it open and out came three huge machines.

"Killachines," mumbled Wraith, his voice still sounding different. "Oi, Angel, stop pulverising that guy's skull and get over here!"

Angel complied with the request, with disappointment, and rushed over to Wraith. Angel could feel his power increasing as the more corrupted he became due to Darkside and thus ran quickly ran over to Wraith, when he reached him he was standing next to him and was staring at three huge contraptions that walked on several mechanical legs and carried a large weapon that was akin to a mechanical axe.

"What the bloody hell are those things?!" Angel asked Wraith in a loud voice.

"Killachines," replied Wraith. "They've been manufactured in Lastation for quite sometime now."

"Lastation? So that Noire girl has sided with the Dark Captains?"

"No, but she doesn't control everything in her nation, I guess another Dark Captain had these made and sent them over during the week."

"Sounds like things are getting out of control over there."

"And in Leanbox too, those robots came from there as well. But I digress, let's wreck them!"

* * *

Victor walked down the concrete hallway in disappointment, he and Brian had searched building after building and yet there was no sign of the captives or even of Severia the Stoic. As Victor turned around a corner an enemy soldier attempted to punch him in the face, the cane wielding man kneed his opponent in the crotch before raising his left hand, it glowed as he began to speak.

" **Thundering Typhoon!** "

A hail of strong wind burst forth from the raised hand and smashed into Victor's opponent, the soldier was sent hurdling against the tough walls and crashed to the ground with two broken arms, yet Victor refused to finish the soldier off.

"I won't kill you," stated Victor. "I don't believe in killing people, but I won't save you either."

Victor walked away and got outside in one piece, he could hear the shouting of Wraith and Angel in the distance as they squared off against the killachines. He then heard the sound of someone running towards him, when he looked at the source it was Brian, his sword was dripping with blood. An enemy soldier came around the corner near Victor and before the soldier had time to fire his rifle a throwing knife became embedded in his neck. Victor looked at Brian, who happened to be still engulfed in dense Share Energy.

"Was that really necessary?" asked Victor. "I could have just knocked him out."

"There's a time and place for everything, but not that while we're here," replied Brian. "I guess you didn't find them?"

Victor shook his head, causing the Ancient to sigh. "This is getting ridiculous beyond believe!" yelled Brian.

"There are only two buildings left, you search the big one while I search the other," said Victor. "Hopefully one of those will contain the captives and the Dark Captain that captured them."

"Severia would wish that she didn't cross dimensions once I get my hands on her!"

"At any rate, good luck."

"You too."

The two of them went their separate ways. Victor whacked an enemy soldier over the head with his cane and rendered them unconscious before entering the smaller building, Brian walked up to the large steel door of the bigger building and tore the door off due to his growing anger, he then walked inside and brandished his sword tightly and a vicious glare was upon his face.

"I will get you all back, one way or another!"

* * *

 **A/N: And there's another chapter done and dusted, now things have been set in motion that cannot be undone. What's going to happen to Blanc, Rom, Ram and Mina? What's going to happen to everyone else? Who knows. I've also updated the OC bios on my profile and have included Victor in the list, and I am making a back story for Kharzark the Interrogator but I'm having some trouble with it so don't expect it for another chapter or two yet. Anyway, leave a suggestion or question if you want to and have a good day readers!**


	36. Light and Shadow

**Chapter 35: Light and Shadow**

The concrete hallway was cold and dusty, cobwebs were visible in corners and the light was darkened, yet Brian's vision did not waver and he kept going forward. He turned a corner and was faced with yet another long empty hallway, the building seemed to be deserted yet Brian could not shake the sense of uneasiness away from his mind. The Ancient knew that there had to be at least one person somewhere in the building yet he did not know where.

Brian walked up a flight of stairs and peered cautiously around the corner to look for any enemies, he found none and became suspicious. "Where the hell are they?" Brian asked himself.

The young man then came across a steel door at the end of the hallway, it was unlocked and unguarded. Brian walked up to the door and, dreading what could be behind, opened it. It swung open and he charged in with his sword held in front of him, but instead of finding the enemy he instead found himself in a large room with a soft leather couch with a coffee table in front of it, the walls were brown and the floor was covered in a blue mat, the room itself wasn't too big yet it wasn't small, there was a bed in one of the corners as well. Brian walked up to the table and saw that there was a note on it, he picked it up and read it.

"Search the basement," read the letter.

He growled and scrunched the letter before throwing it at the wall and left the room, slamming the door behind him. Brian quickly made his way to the basement after running down a few flight of stairs, now no longer caring if there was anyone around. Eventually he came across a large steel door at the bottom of a small flight of stairs, he approached it and found it to be unlocked.

 _It has to be a trap, but what else am I supposed to do?_

Brian slowly opened the door and entered carefully, he found himself in a dark prison-like environment, there were several concrete cells with thick steel doors and iron bars all over the place, everything was quiet and dark and no sign of life could be sensed. As Brian passed the different cells he noticed how everything appeared to be more quiet than before, that was until he silently turned a corner and saw a dim light from an open cell, he heard noises coming from it. As he approached the cell and the source of the noises became clear: it sounded like Rom crying and Ram either whimpering or just snarling, there was also another voice present as well. When Brian glanced into the room he saw a guard watching over the twins and was saying abusive words to them, the guard was also glaring viciously at Rom. The twins themselves were chained up to the wall and were covered in dirt and snow, Rom's hat was on the ground next to her.

"Stop your crying you damn whiner," grumbled the guard. "No one is coming to get you."

"Shut up dummy! Stop being mean to Rom!" yelled Ram.

The guard stared at her for several seconds before walking up to her, Ram looked at him with nervousness and feared what was going to happen. The guard raised his right hand and swiftly slapped Ram on the left cheek, bits of spit flew out of her mouth and landed either on the guard or on the ground, a large red mark could be seen where she had been slapped. It was enough to bring Ram to tears.

"So you're gonna cry too, eh? It won't help you, no one will save the two of you. _N_ _o one_."

The guard said this as he leaned forward at Ram, their noses almost touched as he got closer to her face, his expression was frightening the twins. Suddenly Ram launched her head forward and collided with the nose of the guard, he fell back and felt his nose, it was bleeding. He looked back at Ram and snarled at her as he brandished his weapon – a steel dagger.

"I'm gonna bleed you till you're all drained!" growled the guard as he approached Ram with the intent to kill. When he got close to Ram and prepared to stab her in the gut a sudden jab of pain erupted from his back, he looked down and felt a blade pierce through his back and the point of a sword came through his chest. Suddenly a face appeared next to his left ear and uttered a few words.

"Not if I bleed you first."

The guard, now a lifeless corpse, fell to the ground as the sword was forced out of his body, leaving the bearer of the weapon alone with Rom and Ram. The twins looked at the newcomer and immediately recognised him: it was Brian, a grim look was upon his face and his eyes flared fiercely. The twins had surprised looks on their faces at first, then it turned to joy. Neither one of them could get the image of the killing of the guard out of their minds for the rest of their lives however.

"Hold on you two, I'll get you lot outta there once I find the keys," stated Brian.

After searching the various pockets of the deceased guard Brian stumbled across a key, believing – correctly – that it was the key to unlock the chains that were around Rom and Ram he stood up and unlocked the handcuffs around their wrists and ankles. Once the two were back on the ground, and they had gotten over the cramps in their legs and arms, they looked at Brian. Suddenly the Ancient was forced to the ground as the twin Candidates of Lowee tackled him in a tight hug, the impact caught the young man by surprise and he dropped his sword, the Share Energy died down around him.

"Whoa there! Settle down you two," demanded Brian in a surprised tone. The startled Ancient then heard the sounds of sobbing and felt his shirt get damp, he looked at the twins and noticed that they were crying on him.

"Hey, you're okay now, there's nothing to be worried about," Brian said in a soothing tone.

"But… *sniff* but Mina… is she… is she *sniff* okay?" asked Rom who struggled to hold back her tears.

"I don't know, I haven't seen her yet,' replied Brian. He then put his arms around the twins and hugged tightly to comfort them.

"Big brother, I'm scared."

"I can tell. Don't worry, little sisters, you'll be fine now."

Rom and Ram looked up at Brian, despite their tear stained faces the Ancient could tell that they appeared surprised. "Hey, you just called us little sisters, that's the first time you said that" Ram pointed out.

Brian was stunned at himself for calling Rom and Ram his little sisters, he never called them that despite being called big brother all the time. He didn't know if he did considered Rom and Ram as his little sisters when they first called him big brother but now… now he did consider them as siblings. The Ancient smiled and patted the twins on their heads, calming the CPU Candidates of Lowee. Rom and Ram were still somewhat teary but had cheered up a bit, causing Brian to smile at the two of them.

"Well, the two of you are like little sisters to me, I believe it feels only right to call you that," explained Brian. "Besides, you call me big bro so there. Anyway, I gotta get you two out of here, but before that I've got to find Mina and Blanc."

"B-Blanc? She's here too?" asked Rom.

"Yes, I'm afraid so."

This only caused Rom to start crying on Brian's shirt again, Ram gripped the Ancient tightly and stared at him. "You better save Blanc, or else I'm never going to forgive you," Ram stated bluntly.

Brian nodded. "Understood. You two better get to the surface quickly before anyone shows up."

The twins shook their heads. "Don't think you can just save us then ditch us, dummy, we're coming with you!" exclaimed Ram.

Rom nodded, her puppy dog eye technique making its mark on Brian once again. After cringing at himself mentally he sighed and looked at his 'little sister'. "Alright, fine, you can tag along, but stay out of harms way or I won't forgive myself."

"We can fight too," said Rom.

"I know you can, but I don't want either of you to be hurt."

"Just let us help, dummy. If it makes you feel better we'll just cover for you, hows that?" Ram suggested.

"Fine then. Come on, let's get Rom's hat then move out."

The twins nodded and let go of Brian, he stood up, picked up his sword and retrieved Rom's hat who happily accepted it, together the three of them then left the cell and the deceased guard behind. The twins walked behind Brian as they made their way down the long dark corridor, the group remained on vigilant is case anything came out of the shadows to attack them, yet nothing of the sort happened. Rom held onto Ram's arm as they continued on their way, passing the usual cell or store room, it felt to the group that they were walking in circles, but they pushed forward nonetheless. Rom seemed uneasy as she clutched her twin sister's arm.

"Ram, do you think Miss Mina and Blanc are alright?" asked Rom.

"I'm sure they're fine, well, as fine as they can be down here," replied Ram in an attempt to cheer her sister up. "We can rescue them for sure!"

"O-Okay, if you say so..."

"Stay low, stay frosty," said Brian in a deep and low voice. He couldn't help but chuckle slightly afterwards.

"Um, I don't understand what's funny," said Ram.

"Neither do I," responded Brian.

The group approached a closed steel door that led into another cell, low noises could be heard coming from the other side of the door, causing Brian to raise his sword and walked slowly towards it. The Ancient leaned on the steel door and put an ear against it to figure out who was talking, to his ears it sounded like Mina groaning and another person sighing, it sounded like a guy and Brian guessed that it was a guard. He looked over at Rom and Ram who were watching him.

"I think Mina is behind this door," Brian stated to the young Candidates. "I also believe it is locked, but I do have a plan. You two go behind those boxes over there and I'll convince the guard to get out here, once they're out I'll dispose of them."

"Well, alright then, but don't kill that person, even if they are a big meanie," said Ram.

Brian grumbled about Ram's request but nonetheless went along with it to please her and the shyer sister. The twins hid behind the set of boxes nearby and watched as Brian knocked on the door three times and crouched nearby, the door opened and a lightly armoured guard came out, he looked confused and peered around. The guard shrugged and as he turned around to re-enter the cell a savage hit landed on the side of his face, the guard turned around and saw only a fist covered in blue energy smash into his face, breaking his nose and knocking him out. Brian shook his fist around and he looked back at the pile of boxes to see Rom and Ram peeking over.

"It's fine, the guy's still alive and breathing, for now that is," said Brian to the twins.

Ram nodded and walked towards the cell with Rom following her closely, Brian entered the cell first and saw Mina chained up to the wall, she seemed unconscious. The Ancient crouched at the knocked out body of the guard and searched his body while Rom and Ram tried to wake Mina up, Brian found a key in one of the guard's pockets and grabbed hold of it before returning to Mina, who was starting to wake up. The Oracle of Lowee opened her eyes slowly and saw Brian leaning over her, the rattling of chains and a key could be heard as she watched the young man unlock her from her chains. She fell to the ground and was caught by Rom and Ram, who then hugged her tightly, slight crying sounds could be heard from Rom who was overjoyed in seeing her guardian and mentor again.

"R-Rom, Ram? You're safe?" asked Mina in a tired voice.

"Yep! Big brother helped us out before we found you," explained Ram.

"Big brother? You mean Brian?" She looked up at Brian who could only shrug before throwing the key away.

"You alright?" Brian asked Mina.

"Y-Yeah, I should be fine, nothing really happened to be except for being chained up of course," replied Mina as she hugged Rom and Ram.

"Look on the bright side: there weren't any tentacles around the place."

Mina cringed as his words processed through her mind, her thoughts turned towards a manga that Blanc had created a while back which contained a certain ecchi scene involving tentacles and a Mina-like character alongside a Vert-like character. It wasn't something that she wanted to remember any time soon. Brian noticed the cringed expression on the Oracle's face yet decided to not delve into the matter, though if he did the Ancient would surely have wanted to view Blanc's ecchi manga for 'research' purposes.

"Come on, I think Blanc might be down the hallway," said Brian as the twins helped Mina off the ground.

The others nodded and followed Brian as he walked out of the cell. After looking left and right for several seconds Brian decided to head right, and after walking for a few minutes they turned around a corner and ended up in a hallway which Brian and the group hadn't been down. With a slight nodded the group followed Brian down the hallway with the Ancient in the lead, Ram was behind him with Rom attached to her, Mina covered the rear. They listened to every cell that they passed but nothing could be heard, eventually Rom began to loose hope and started to cry. Brian noticed this and walked over to her.

"Rom, it'll be alright," said Brian to comfort the young goddess. He patted her head and watched as she looked up with tear stained eyes and cheeks.

"W-What happens if we don't find Blanc?" asked Rom.

"I… I don't know, but we better do find her, or else I will never forgive myself if she isn't found here."

Eventually they arrived outside a steel door that they hadn't listened to yet, a small spark of hope then crept back into their hearts. Brian walked over to the door and put an ear against it, to his delight there was a sound, it sounded like Blanc groaning in despair. Then there was another voice, a voice that Brian had not heard before, it sounded like a woman. Brian managed to open the door as it was unlocked and he charged into a large dark room, before him across the room was Blanc chained to the wall and a woman in steel armour and a trident in her right hand stood in front of her, she looked over at Brian and grinned.

"Good to see you managed to get here with those rotten bitches," Severia said in a condescending tone. "Now then, lets get this over with."

"My thoughts exactly," responded Brian.

The two of them looked at one another before charging, Brian swung his sword at Severia who blocked it, she then bashed the blade away and smashed the end of the trident staff against his chest, sending Brian to the ground. Severia was then met with the onslaught of Rom and Ram, who had transformed into the White Sisters and began to attack the Dark Captain with their ranged magic attack, it didn't help the Dark Captain that Blanc was sniggering in the background while Brian had gotten himself back onto his feet. Severia knew that she had to deal with one at a time, and her first target was to be Brian.

 _One on three is too hard, even for someone like me, although I suppose I can separate him from the Candidates and their Oracle if I manage to drive them out of the room and lock the door behind them, leaving me with the boy. Yes, that'll have to do!_

Severia steadied herself against the magic attacks of the White Sisters and the swift slashes of Brian's sword, the Dark Captain blocked and dodged attack after attack, she proved herself quick and agile during the fight. Finally Rom and Ram raised their staffs at Severia after she was bashed to the ground and shouted in one loud voice.

" **Ice Coffin!** " the White Sisters shouted.

Shards of hard ice burst forth from their staffs and crashed onto the ground around Severia, the ground around her then lite alight and ice smashed into the Dark Captain, cracking her armour and throwing her away into a nearby wall. Blanc watched the scene occur and smiled at her little sisters, they then attempted to run towards their big sister but the groans of Severia stopped them. Brian raised his sword once more and prepared to continue the fight. Severia the Stoic, however, looked more than just angry, in fact she looked completely pissed off.

"Right, that does it, no more holding back," snarled Severia. " **Tidal Crescent!** "

The head of Severia's trident began to glow brightly, then the Dark Captain charged forward and swung the trident around 180 degrees horizontally, as she did this water came from the trident head and smashed into Brian, Rom, Ram and Mina. The water didn't splash onto them, instead is it them like a rock, not to mention it was as deadly as sharp swords and areas of the skin were cut. It also managed to force everyone except Brian towards the door due to the force impact of the deadly water attack, Severia seized the moment and charged at the group. The Dark Captain dealt a savage blow to Rom's head and kicked Ram in the stomach, sending the two of them into Mina who fell out of the room, Severia then closed the door and locked it. Brian stood up and growled at his opponent.

"Grrr, curse you!" Brian yelled as he swung his sword at Severia, who blocked it before sidestepping him and smashed the trident staff onto his head, sending him to the ground once again.

"Give up already, you'll never be able to defeat me," said Severia calmly. "We both fight in two different fighting styles: you fight like a warrior who tries to deal a savage blow before the fight has even made its peak, my fighting style counters that and thanks to my agility I'm able to deal a blow in three different ways after I block you."

"I don't need counselling! Now die!" Brian swung at her legs and got back on his feet before backing off. Even if his Share Energy increases his speed and strength he wouldn't be able to do much damage, this Dark Captain was different than the others he quickly realised.

The two attacked each other once again, both parrying each others blows and attempted to strike at the flesh whenever the opportunity arose, Brian managed to make a few slashes on parts of Severia's unguarded arms and legs, though it would not be enough to take her down. All of this happened at Rom, Ram and Mina tried, and failed to open the steel door. Blanc continued to watch it all occur and she couldn't help but feel sad as the CPU of Lowee watched Brian get beaten down to the ground on several occasions only for him to rise up again, angrier than before.

"This has gone on for long enough," grumbled Severia after what seemed like an eternity had passed despite it being only ten minutes at least. " **Bursting Point!** "

Severia's trident began to glow and a rune appeared at the middle point of the trident head, suddenly a burst of bright energy came forth and crashed into Brian's chest, sending the young man against the wall and leaving him barely conscious. His shirt was ripped around the chest and the skin was marked with severe cuts and bruises, the Share Energy had managed to prevent severe damage though, either that or Severia's attack wasn't as damaging as it was meant to be. Brian stood up and leaned against the wall only to be hit on the face, Severia raised her trident towards Brian.

"The Right Hand said he wanted you alive, but he didn't say unharmed," said Severia with a wicked grin.

Severia then charged forth and struck Brian in the right arm, the trident entered the bone of the arm between his elbow and shoulder, the snapping and cracking of bone could be heard loud and clear. The trident went through the arm and into the wall behind Brian, impaling him to it. The Ancient screamed out in pain and saw large amounts of blood flow from his arm, apart from that he couldn't move or feel anything from the elbow or below it. Blanc watched in horror as Brian's arm was impaled to the wall and couldn't help but slightly tear up as she saw Brian writhe in agony.

"Brian! Grr, damn you Dark Captain, I'll smash you when I get outta here!" yelled Blanc.

"Oh shut up," groaned Severia. "Now then, time to get you to Agandur's Right Hand."

"W-What… for?" Brian asked her in an exhausted voice.

"I suppose I can tell you: you're going to be used for the return of the Dark Lord, in fact you are going to be the vessel for him."

"You're not going to use him for your damn plans!" yelled Blanc. "Screw this Dark Lord of yours!"

The Dark Captain turned around and glared at Blanc, she then walked over to the Loweean CPU and slapped her on the face, twice. "How dare you… you will never understand what my master means to me, never!"

"Tch! Go to hell."

The Dark Captain then snarled at Blanc and repeatedly hit her in the face or the gut, causing Blanc to cry out in pain and growl at her abuser. Brian watched it happen and felt his anger growing at an alarming rate. There had been times before in his past when his anger would override everything but that was a rarity, this time however things were different. Someone he cared about was being beaten up and couldn't fight back, not to mention his right arm was out of commission, possibly for life. Brian growled loud enough for Severia to hear and grabbed his sword in his left hand, the Ancient raised it over his pierced right arm.

" **Wraith Blade!** " shouted Brian. His sword glowed and he slashed downward through his right arm, severing it from his body. Looks of shock were upon Blanc and Severia's faces as they watched the young man fall to the ground without his right arm, blood flowed down his coat and dripped onto the ground, Brian appeared to be in pain yet didn't show it by yelling. One other thing Blanc and Severia noticed was the Share Energy around Brian: it was heavily condensed and shards of flaring blue mist flowed from where his right arm previously was. The two of them watched in amazement as the blue mist combined into solid form and turn itself into a new right arm, though it remained bright blue like the Share Energy. Brian stared at it in wonder.

"Whoa, never knew that Share Energy could do that," mumbled Brian. "Now then, time to die!"

The Ancient charged at Severia, who was now unprepared for a fight as she hadn't expected a turn of events like this, although she did have a dagger strapped to her belt she knew that it wouldn't be enough. Brian and Severia traded blow for blow, the Ancient was now the one with the upper hand and pressed his advantage, slashing at Severia and causing her to bleed in several places. Finally Severia ran at Brian with her dagger poised to strike him in the throat, however she stabbed him not in the throat but in the right shoulder, the Ancient growled in pain and grabbed the Dark Captain by the throat, he raised her off the ground and a wicked grin formed on his face. His grip on her tightened and Severia began to flail around for air.

"Mess with the best, die like the rest," Brian said in a malevolent tone. He then stabbed Severia in the gut, causing her to cry out in pain. The Ancient then threw the limp Dark Captain across the room and watched her collide with the wall, she then fell to the ground and appeared dead. Brian seemed to calm down and walked over to the fallen Dark Captain, he searched through her satchel and recovered a key. Brian walked over to Blanc and released the CPU from her chains, he caught her as she fell to the ground.

"Hey, you alright?" asked Brian.

Blanc looked up at Brian, she appeared to be sad and frightened, out of instinct he put his arms around Blanc pulled her into a hug, the CPU of Lowee responded by quickly hugging him back. Blanc then began to mumble some words as she pressed her head against Brian's chest.

"Hmm? Are you saying something, Blanc?" asked Brian.

"W-Well its just… well, I feel weak, I couldn't fight back once I saw what had happened to Rom, Ram and Mina. I could have fought back but I couldn't or else… or else my sisters and Mina would have died," replied Blanc in a quiet voice, she then began to slightly cry and tears formed in her eyes. "And now you lost your right arm, all because I couldn't fight back."

"They're fine now, just like you are right now. And there is no need to worry about me, I've got a new arm due to the Share Energy, that's good enough for me so don't worry about anything." Brian rubbed the back of her head and a caring smile formed on his face as the Share Energy died down completely.

"Despite your rugged personality you are quite caring."

"I-I guess that... well, you and your sisters must've helped change that. Oh yeah, here's your hat, found it outside the Basilicom."

Blanc gave him the smile that always made him blush while she continued to hug him after she put her hat back on. "I'm glad that we managed to help you, and thanks for retrieving my hat. Come on, we better get out of here and get back to my sisters and Mina before heading for the surface."

* * *

"This is getting ridiculous!" yelled Angel as a giant axe smashed next to him.

The fight against the killachines had been tough for the young sadist, through the combined efforts of himself, Wraith and Victor, who had finished exploring the buildings, they had managed to destroy one killachine. However, two more remained and everyone was starting to tired, even Wraith was starting to tire due to fatigue.

"Tell me about it!" responded Wraith, his voice now sounded like three people: his own voice, an old cruel lady and a psychopathic young woman. He had gotten rid off his scythe and was now holding his hand close together while dark purple and red energy was forming into a ball between his hands, Victor got near Wraith and stared at the energy. The top hat wearing man eyed it suspiciously.

 _It looks familiar, I might have seen it before yet I could be mistaken. I have to ask Miss Histoire about it if I should see her again, I doubt I would get any answers out of this mad fellow._

Wraith then let out a chilling laughter as the energy condensed and expanded in his hands, he stared at a killachine and walked towards it. He then ran at it before hold one hand with the energy up and smashed it into the body of the killachine, a dark purple and red light enveloped around them and blinded everyone close to them. Finally the light died away and Wraith was kneeling on the ground and was panting deeply, the killachine was heavily damaged and parts of it had fallen to the ground, including one of its arms. Angel seized the moment and attacked the large robotic monster, he jumped and climbed it until he reached the head, the sadist then stabbed the head with his sword and collapsed to the ground with the machine. He rolled on the snowy field and laid on his back before getting up again.

"I'm glad that Darkside is useful in this situation," mumbled Angel. "I can feel my power increasing."

The last killachine smashed one of its arms into Victor and sent the man flying across the field. He crashed to the ground with a part of his trench coat torn and blood across it. Victor looked up and saw the situation they were in: an exhausted Wraith, a slightly insane Angel and now a wounded Victor, the last killachine was still around and was prepared to kill them. That was until a shout was heard and Victor saw White Heart and the White Sister floating in the air, despite that they did appear tired and worn out. Victor also noticed how Brian, who was leaning against a wall with Mina, had a bright blue colour over his right arm.

"Oi! Get over 'ere so I can wreck you!" shouted White Heart.

The killachine responded by attacking the goddess head-on, both of them traded blow for blow, White Heart managed to strike a few slashes with her giant axe while Rom and Ram hit the machine with their magic attacks. It wasn't enough however as the killachine hit White Heart with its axe and sent her flying straight to the ground, as she was about to crash land White Heart was caought by a worn out Brian, he fell to the ground with the CPU of Lowee sitting on his chest.

"You idiot, I told you to stay out of this fight," grumbled White Heart as she helped Brian up onto his feet.

"I'm sorry, but I wanted to help you," responded Brian. "The killachine is wounded and I think a direct attack at his centre and head will win us the day."

"But that bastard of a machine is quicker than I thought."

"Then we'll just have to try a combo attack, just like we practised a few days ago."

White Heart nodded. "Alright then, but you've lost quite a bit of blood, I think you should..."

"No, I'm helping. Let's get this over with." The Share Energy engulfed Brian once again and together the two of them charged into the thick of battle.

"Time for our combo attack. **Light and Shadow: Rain of Fury!** " Brian and White Heart shouted together.

White Heart flew into the air and swiftly smashed her axe several times against the killachine while Brian attacked from the ground and slashed his blade against the metal skin of the machine, every few seconds the attacks would get stronger and quicker until White Heart attacked the centre alongside Brian, who had leapt from the snowy ground. A bright beam of light burst from the centre chest of the killachine and smashed out the back, the large robot fell to the ground in pieces. Brian collapsed on the ground only to be caught by White Heart, who rested his head on her lap, a small smile was on her face as she patted his head. Angel approached her with a concerned expression, the dark energy around him had died down and Darkside was no longer active.

"Is he alright?" he asked.

White Heart nodded. "He will be, but he's still loosing blood. I have to take him back to the Basilicom before his condition gets worse."

"Alright. By the way, what happened to his arm?"

"Well, about that, he cut it off after it was pierced to the wall by a trident, then his Share Energy created a new arm for him. He'll explain it in more detail once we're all back at the Basilicom."

Rom and Ram, still in HDD form, landed next to their older sister. They all watched as Victor hauled Wraith up off the ground and the two of them approached the rest of the group. "I have to get back to the Basilicom, Brian needs treatment," White Heart explained to Wraith.

The former Oracle nodded and noticed that the young man was unconscious. "Don't worry about everything here, I'll clean it all up, just get going," responded Wraith, his voice now back to normal.

White Heart held Brian close to her and flew into the sky and towards the Basilicom, Rom and Ram looked over at Angel and noticed that he was worn out. "Hey, we can take you back as well" Ram offered.

"Sure, I need a good rest," replied Angel. Ram caught hold of his arms and flew off into the sky and was followed by Rom carrying Mina, leaving Wraith and Victor behind to clean things up.

"Well that's over and done with," sighed Victor as he fell to the ground exhausted. He saw that Wraith had cast his hood back but left his scarf on, Victor saw the long strands of brown hair flow in the new wind, it was the first time that Victor noticed that Wraith looked more human than usual.

"Yeah, we've got a lot of cleaning to do," said Wraith in a disheartened tone. Unknown to them a door opened and a badly wounded woman in steel armour wielding a trident stepped out and walked off and out of the base, leaning on her weapon as a staff. It was Severia, who barely managed to survive Brian's attack. She managed to leave the military base unnoticed and got away into a nearby forest where she collapsed onto a fallen tree, alive but completely worn out and slowly dying.

"I... I need assistance, and quickly," grumbled Severia as she pulled a phone out of her broken armour and dialed a number. The other end picked up. "I've got bad news, we've been driven out of Lowee, I'm the last survivor. I see, glad the Share Energy container made it safely, but I need assistance; I'm dying over here. Oh, you're sending over one of your new allies, huh? We'll see what happens I suppose."

* * *

Blanc sat on Brian's bed with the Ancient's head resting against her shoulder, the young man himself was covered in bandages around his body and was asleep. On the way back to the Basilicom Brian had woken up to find himself in the air above Lowee and was being held in a hug position by White Heart, when they arrived in the Basilicom the Ancient was taken to the medical bay and turned out to be eventually alright, although everyone was surprised how Brian's Share Energy managed to manifest itself in solid form to reconstruct his right arm. After being bandaged up he was taken to his room and there he and Blanc sat and read the rest of Blanc's novel which he found to be interesting and he liked it, afterwards he fell asleep. Blanc gently patted his head and smiled.

"Thank you, Brian, for everything you've done," said Blanc, despite knowing he was asleep. "I better go now, have a good sleep."

Blanc gently rested Brian's head on his pillow and she then stood up and walked towards the door, before she left the room the quiet CPU looked back at the sleeping young man and blushed. "Goodnight, Brian, I… I… w-well, it doesn't matter. 'Night."

* * *

 **A/N: I'm glad to have gotten this chapter out, I got a bit stumped on the fight scene between Brian and Severia, not to mention the final fight scene and the last part of the chapter. What do you think is going to happen now that Brian and Angel's time in Lowee has come to an end? Leave a comment if you have a suggestion, question or a request, I'm up for anything.**

 **Now onto some news: I'm afraid that I am going to be taking a break from story writing for a few weeks, mainly because I need to catch up on other aspects of my life and I also gotta revise for my last remaining exam, so I would say I'm taking three weeks off so I apologise readers. Anyway, have a good day**


	37. A Fallen Wizard

**Chapter 36: A Fallen Wizard**

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 **A/N: Thanks for waiting patiently these last few weeks, my exams are finally over and I have plenty of time left over to finish this fanfic, although technically I still have one week off but I had this chapter waiting on the sidelines. I have worked out all of my future chapters, though I won't say how many there will be, just know that there's still a lot to go. I'm also wrapping up the last few back stories for the villains and this one took me a while to figure out, had to take ideas from Fairy Tail and monster concepts from Middle-Earth lore. On a side note I have updated the OC bios on my profile and now their skills can be known, though not all are there. Anyway, I hope you continue reading this and enjoy it.**

* * *

The rain pelted down hard on the steel roof, outside was dark and cloudy, such was the weather at that time. Leanbox was known for its fine weather despite a few rain showers every now and then, but this time the rain had lasted longer and was more heavier than before. Inside what appeared to be an abandoned factory that had been repaired stood a tall man with grey robes, a mask and a curved spiky sword in place of his right arm, he stared at the weather from a cracked glass window and uttered not a single word. Silence reigned in the place. Finally it was broken as another tall person, a woman, walked up beside the masked man known as Kharzark the Interrogator.

"The whole country of Leanbox will be covered in dark clouds and rain," said the tall woman. "I think even parts of Planeptune will be under this rainfall."

"Nothing dampens your spirits does it, Arfoire?" replied Kharzark. He took a moment to look at her attire, which was something he didn't usually do. Arfoire had a gothic appeal, was dressed in black with hints of purple, she appeared to be grey-white skinned with blood red eyes, had dark make-up around her eyes and lips and a very big witch hat with a golden leaf and thorn purple rose spiralling around. Her outfit consisted of a bustier like top with thick bands/strings going up the centre to hold it together, along with unattached sleeves and noticeable clawed nails. The hair was of a purple colour and was shoulder length with very short slanted bangs and hair framing her right cheek. Overall Kharzark found her to be very weird, but he had seen weirder things before.

The witch had been recruited by Agandur's Right Hand a while back not long after he had encountered Abnes. The old hag, as the Right Hand had first called her, was at first unsure about the concept of joining sides with a group from another dimension, that was until she heard about their plans of world domination. She was quick to sign up. But Arfoire had never expected to be teamed up with Kharzark, she had been warned that the tall man gave off a frightening scent and when the gothic witch arrived in the Zune District she soon realised what they meant, Kharzark appeared barely human due to his appearance, yet Arfoire knew that there was more to him than meets the eye.

Afoire grinned at him before returning her gaze to the weather outside. "This place brings make memories, though not very fond ones. I almost managed to kill the Goddesses around here on this island before their damn little sisters and their friends came and rescued them."

"A pity you didn't manage to kill them when you had the chance, sounds like you're weaker than I thought."

Arfoire shrugged. "Whatever, you're lucky that I'm not going to to tear your tongue out after I rip that mask of your face. Though I must say, your female friend utterly failed with her task in Lowee, she was an absolute wreck when I found her."

"Oh, you mean Severia? I heard about what happened up there, must say I was surprised at first that she failed, then again she did what most people did in certain situations: underestimate the enemy. It seems that the Shadow Walker and his companions were more than she bargained for."

"Tell me, this Shadow Walker that Agandur's Right Hand talked about a while back, is he tough in battle?"

"Sort of, he is unpredictable and is able to dish out heavy attacks yet his body seems frail without the use of Share Energy. I find it strange that the Right Hand wants him alive for the return of the Dark Lord, can't see how that boy can do anything for our master. Although, his friend is on a whole different level." Kharzark's spine shivered and he shuddered as he remembered the time he saw Angel and Iris Heart together in battle, their sadistic nature leaving a permanent mark on him.

"Interesting, it seems like you have a fear of something then, I'm rather surprised that a man like you actually fears that boy." Arfoire couldn't help but snigger at Kharzark, causing the masked man to look at her and snarl viciously.

"Shut your mouth, or I'll tear your head off!"

"Fine then, seems like I can't have a bit of fun around here." As Arfoire turned around and walked away she stopped and looked back at Kharzark, her face filled with questions. "What is behind that mask of yours? Let me guess; did you suffer a severe accident? Or perhaps something else entirely?"

Kharzark looked away from Arfoire, the atmosphere turning grim and silent. "I'd… rather not answer that. Now get lost, there's work to be done."

Arfoire took one last look at the tall man and silently snarled at him, she hated being ordered around and felt weak because of it, but she would not allow her pride to overtake her emotions and decided, bitterly, to go along with Kharzark's words. Kharzark heard Arfoire's footsteps go away down one of the factory's corridors, to where he did not care, his mind was thinking about something else: his past. The masked man sighed and continued to watch the rain pelt down onto the ground from his position at the large window.

"They will never understand, no one will understand," Kharzark mumbled to himself quietly. "True, all of us Dark Captains have had some sort of drama in our past and each story is different, including mine."

* * *

 _It was another sunny morning day in the Empire, the sun was high in the sky and was shining brightly upon everyone, there were little clouds and the wind was bare. Altogether it could be said that it was a good yet warm day. In a town known as Tylis there was a commotion occurring in the town centre where a travelling wizard had just arrived and was showing off his skills to the populace, it was none other than Kharzark. The travelling wizard was well known in the southern lands of the Empire for his unrivalled skill in fire magic, not to mention his handsome looks that made many women fall head-over-heals, even married women had a hard time resisting his charms. It had been known that Kharzark would usually try to avoid any harem situations at all costs when it came to relationships, he would even avoid one-on-one relationships, in fact it had been rumoured that Kharzark would sneak away from his stage acts once finished due to this problem. IT was true that he was shy at times._

 _The town centre was filled with all manner of market stores, shops, a blacksmith and a small wooden stage out in the open, the surrounding buildings were made of stone and wood. In the centre of the stage stood Kharzark. The tall man had shoulder length dark blue hair without any bangs covering his forehead, grey robes with long sleeves and also covered most of the area around his legs, gold lining was also included along the rims of the sleeves and robe. Black pants could just be seen underneath his robes and dark brown gloves were on his hands. His face was clean and bright, his grey eyes were gazed upon the large crown in front of him and a grin was on his face._

" _Ladies and gentlemen, thank you all for turning up to see me embarrass myself in front of you by showing off my magic skills," roared Kharzark in a loud voice that everyone in the town centre could hear clearly, even the partially deaf. "Today I intend to awe you with something I haven't tried as of yet: fireworks and creating creatures purely made of fire."_

 _The crowd was silent with amazement just from hearing what he was going to attempt for them, they were also confused as to what fireworks were, they had not heard of such a thing before. As Kharzark rose his right hand in the air he took a short moment to look at the oversized crowd of people that had arrived from all around the town and even the countryside to see what he had in store. There were many people of all ages present, even members of the higher classes were there to watch him, what amazed the tall wizard was that commoners and the rich were intermingled in the crowd side-by-side. As Kharzark looked over to his left he saw a small group of people huddled together near the tavern, they here hooded and cloaked plus they also seemed to be staring straight at him, despite it all Kharzark chose to ignore them and continue with his performance._

 _The fire wizard held his right hand high in the air and a red rune appeared just above it, then bright red jets of fire shot forth into the air for miles and miles until they collided, huge sparks of fire burst together in the sky and so the people of the imperial town of Tylis were the first to see the wonders of fireworks. The crowd cheered as the display entered its final stage and they clapped their hands as the fireworks continued to occur in the sky while Kharzark bowed to them. The fire wizard stood straight and a large smile was on his face, clearly he was very happy with the response that he got from the crowd._

" _I thank you all for enjoying that, took me a while to master it," said Kharzark with the smile still intact. He could hear the yelling of women and feel the jealous glares from the men, after years of performing his magic tricks he hadn't been able to get used to it. With a light chuckle he scratched the back of his head._

" _Well then, let's get on with the next act," spoke Kharzark. "Next up I will be creating creatures from all over the Empire and beyond with my fire magic."_

 _Many people were keenly interested in what Kharzark was going to create with his fire, they knew of many creatures that lived in the Empire but they had only heard rumours of what lived outside the borders to the north and west. Kharzark raised both his hands together and shouted in a loud voice that could be heard by anyone in town._

" _ **Fire Serpent!** "_

 _A rune appeared in the palms of his hands and out came a long snake-like fire dragon, its jaws wide open and teeth bare for all to see, its fire scale skin flared in the morning sun and its claws were large. It glared at everyone in the crowd and roared at the top of its lungs – if it had lungs at all. People began to panic and were prepared to disperse until Kharzark got their attention once more._

" _It's alright, he's harmless, that is until I tell him to go wild. But do not fear, that is not going to happen," Kharzark explained to them in a calm voice. The fire serpent growled and sniffed the air, for some reason it looked over to the group huddled outside the tavern and growled even louder, causing Kharzark to stare at them suspiciously. He knew that whenever his fire serpent stared and growled at someone or a group of people it meant that trouble was near. The fire wizard quickly decided to ignore it for now and continue with his tricks._

" _This fire serpent is usually used for combat, and he has a good scent whenever trouble is nearby," explained Kharzark, throwing a glance at the group by the tavern, the group looked up at him and he could sense their snarls. "Anyway, time to create more creatures made of fire, hope you like them."_

 _The fire serpent disappeared and Kharzark raised his hands in front of him once more, another rune appeared in the palms of his hands and fire erupted from it, the fire took many forms of different animals and creatures that roamed the lands of the Empire and beyond its borders. There were rabbits, ducks, wolves, dogs, cats, different types of birds, deer and fish, then there were the creatures that were rumoured to live far to the north in an area where not even barbarians dare live. These creatures ranged from ogres to trolls, even snake-like dragons that roared in high pitch squeals. The crowd could only wonder how Kharzark knew of them, had he perhaps seen them with his own eyes? That would be a fair guess as the travelling fire wizard was known to go adventuring across all parts of the Empire, even perhaps outside the borders as well._

 _The day wore on as Kharzark kept up the fireworks and the fire creature summoning, the crowd continued to be dazzled with the magnificent display of magic that Kharzark threw at them for their enjoyment, many began to call him the greatest wizard in the Empire to his own embarrassment. The fire wizard was quick to explain that he was not the greatest as the emperor's battlemage was meant to hold that title. Finally the town bell rang its noonday tone, causing Kharzark to stop his performance._

" _And that concludes my performance," he said in a cheerful tone. "I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. I might come around here again to do something different, or perhaps not, I can't make any promises."_

 _The crowd cheered and shouted his name in praise. "Kharzark! Kharzark! Kharzark! Kharzark!"_

 _The tall fire wizard flushed red in his cheeks and rubbed the back of his head. "Well, this is a bit embarrassing."_

 _The late afternoon sun began to fall over the horizon to the west, leaving a red/orange sky in its wake. On a stone cobble path with many trees and bushes along the sides walked Kharzark the Fire Wizard, he walked on the path to the north-west towards another town that happened to be nearby, a place called Larissa. A backpack was on his back and his hands were still at his sides, his eyes glanced everywhere in his sight before him and he listened to his surroundings. Kharzark was being cautious. Ever since the performance the fire wizard had been on his guard due to his fire serpent spying out a suspicious band of people that happened to be watching him, it was obvious to Kharzark that someone was after him._

" _But I wonder, who might be after me?" Kharzark asked himself. "I am sure I haven't upset anyone out there in the magic community, I'm not that good a wizard to be much of a threat. Then again, it could be some rogue wizard with a band of ruffians, they're becoming a bit more common now."_

 _Everything in the Empire was not all that well at that time. The eastern coast had been suffering from pirate attacks for a few months already under the command of a pirate queen, then there had been talk of strange summons from the Northern Wasteland, by whom no one knew, of course there was talk of the Nameless One and his approach towards the northern border of the Empire. The barbarians were also restless and there had been talk of a small army going to reinforce the border, but that wasn't going to happen for a while, for a month at least._

" _Well whatever is going to happen, let it happen. I'm ready for anything!" boasted Kharzark._

" _You sure about that, fire wizard?" asked someone from the densely covered trees and bushes._

 _Kharzark stood his ground and raised his hands in a defensive position. "Who's' there? Show yourself!"_

" _You honestly don't recognise my voice? Such insolence, to think you are known to be the greatest wizard in the whole southern region of the Empire, not to forget your memory is not what it used to be." The owner of the voice came forward from the shrubbery and let Kharzark look. It was a man looking to be at least in his thirties, he had swaying green hair with bangs that covered his forehead and sides of his head, his eyes were ice blue, he wore what appeared to be leather armour on his chest, arms and legs underneath a dark grey coat. Kharzark's eyes widened in shock and he immediately became angry._

" _Why are you here, Gismarick?" growled Kharzark._

" _Isn't it simple? To take you back home for punishment, it was because of you that my father is in prison, it is because of you that everything was taken away from me, you are to blame for everything Kharark! Or should I say, Brutus," replied Gismarick._

" _I'm to blame?! I was a slave for sixteen years to that bastard you call a father! Do you not remember that slavery was banned by emperor Aetius the Pious over two hundred years ago?"_

" _Yes it was banned then, but the Black Market has boomed with slaves ever since that day. You should have been grateful that my father took you as a slave, your barbarian mother and traitorous imperial father left you to your fate. But you just had to escape and tell the local governor what was going on, and because of that I lost everything while my father is still incarcerated! I'll make you suffer."_

 _Four more men came forth from the undergrowth bearing weapons ranging from swords to spears to bows, they were clad in leather chainmail armour and stood next to Gismarick. The green haired man had a wicked grin on his face as he stared at Kharzark. "Now then, come along quietly or else," Gismarick warned the fire wizard._

 _Kharzark quickly raised his right hand at Gismarick and shouted. " **Fireball!** "_

 _A large ball of fire launched from the palm of Kharzark's right hand and flew straight into Gismarck's face, causing the man to scream out in pain and hold his hands over his face. His armoured companions rushed forward to avenge their leader and attack the fire wizard. One of them held a two-handed sword and swung it at Kharzark, the fire wizard dodged the attack and swiftly pressed the palm of his right hand against the chest of the sword bearer._

" _ **Fireball!** "_

 _The sword bearer was hit with the full impact of the attack and sent to the ground in pain. As Kharzark ducked and weaved he managed to avoid getting hit by a spear and an arrow, but he was then hit in the face by the pummel of a sword, sending the wizard to the ground. Undaunted, the fire wizard threw himself to his feet and raised his hands in front of him and a rune appeared as he ran around the place to avoid getting pierced by arrows._

" _ **Fire Serpent!** "_

 _Out came Kharzark's battle companion, the fire serpent, it glared viciously at the attackers before breathing fire out of its mouth and onto the archer, roasting him alive. The others looked on and grimaced grimly as they charged into the thick of combat once more, this time accompanied by Gismarick who now had the right half of his face burnt. The green haired man snarled at Kharzark and brandished his steel sword along with a small round shield with a spike in the centre, he then charged towards the fire wizard._

 _Kharzark threw more fireballs at his opponents and managed to hit a few of them, yet he could tell that time was against him, the wizard had used up a lot of his magical power back in Tylis and was slow at replenishing it. With a slight growl he ducked a swing from a sword and barely managed to avoid getting pierced by a spear. His fire serpent was under heavy attack by Gismarick who was a lot more quicker on his feet than Kharzark had first thought, it was going to cause him problems. Gismarick sidestepped the fire serpent and swung his sword through the long neck of the creature, slaying it and sending it away in shards of fire._

" _Heh, is that all you can manage?" taunted Gismarick, he grimaced with pain as the smouldering ruin of one side of his face continued to release smoke._

 _The fire wizard looked at the attacking group with annoyance. "Fine then, if it is a close combat fight you want then I'll give it to you. **Flame Cloak!** "_

 _Kharzark became engulfed in fire and his eyes glared fiercely, now he was almost untouchable and his scary demeanour made him fearsome to behold. Gismarick snarled and charged into combat once again. Kharzark threw another fireball at Gismarck but missed the target and instead hit the spear wielder in the chest, causing the man to cry out in pain as he had been wearing very light armour, he fell to the ground and was hit by another fireball, this time killing him. Kharzark dodged attacks and would reply with fireballs and the usual kick or punch, however, he sensed that his time was almost up and all of his magical power was drained. After punching someone in the face the fire wizard knelt on the ground in exhaustion and the flame cloak disappeared._

 _Gismarick, undaunted and almost completely worn out, ran up to Kharzark and swung his sword straight through the fire wizard's right arm, severing it from his body. As the fire wizard yelled out in pain Gismarick kicked him in the face, sending Kharzark to the ground flat on his back. The green haired man looked down at the former slave and a wicked grin appeared on his face._

" _Now then, it is time to take you away, we have got a lot of catching up to do," Gismarick said in a frightening tone._

* * *

 _Night had fallen over the land and yet everything was anything but peaceful deep in the Catulonian Forest, inside an abandoned villa screams could be heard if anyone was to get near the ruined mess. Outside a room stood the surviving comrades of Gismarick, they stood guard at the door and listened the painful screaming that was coming from the other side. It was obvious as to what was happening: Kharzark the Fire Wizard was being tortured by Gismarick._

" _Come on! Scream for me! Feel the pain, slave!" yelled Gismarick as he continuously punched Kharark in the face._

 _Kharzark, who had been chained to the wall in the cellar, had been undergoing Gismarick's torture all night and felt numb in his legs, arms, chest, gut and very soon his face was about to go numb from all the pain he was enduring. The green haired man grinned and held a large piece of iron, the tip of it was burning hot and was aimed straight at Kharzark's face, it was clear what was going to happen next. The fire wizard felt it was ironic to be tortured with the very element he was supposed to control._

 _The burning piece of iron was smashed against Kharzark's face and the pain he felt was beyond anything he had imagined, the sizzling of flesh rang through the ears of the fire wizard and Gismarick, the green haired man was smirking wickedly. After what seemed like an eternity the iron bar was removed from Kharzark's face, then Gismarick peered at it with great interest. The face of Kharzark barely resembled the once great fire wizard. The severe punches and the hot iron had reformed Kharzark's features until he was almost unrecognisable to anyone. The thought of that happening brought a smile to Gismarick's face._

" _Heh, you're almost unrecognisable you know, but we are not done with our one-on-one time here," chuckled Gismarick. The green haired man got close to Kharzark, so close that the fire wizard could feel the man's breath on his ruined and scarred face. "You like fire, don't you? Well I'm going to give you more of it-!"_

 _In an instant Kharzark head-butted Gismarick in the face and broke the green haired man's nose, as he fell to the floor yelling in pain Kharzark's remaining hand opened up and a magical rune appeared in the palm. " **Fire Cloak!** "_

 _Gismarick looked up and saw a frightening sight, Kharzark remained chained to the wall but was engulfed in a dense fire, the chains were starting to overheat and melt, causing much pain to the fire wizard. Kharzark's appearance was what Gismarick would call intimidating and frightening. Eventually the chains melted and the fire wizard fell to the ground in front Gismarick, the green haired man looked up when Kharzark stood up and immediately became filled with fear, it seemed to him that he was staring at the most fearsome being he had encountered. Thus the Interrogator was born._

" _You… I will make you suffer in hell!" yelled Kharzark._

 _The heavily scarred fire wizard picked up Gismarick with his remaining hand and let the flame cloak engulf around the green haired man, but instead of it acting as a shield it was burning the flesh off him. Gismarick screamed in pain and tried to get out of Kharzark's grip but to no avail, it wasn't long until Gismarick had turned into fried meat. With a satisfied sigh Kharzark threw the corpse down to the ground and looked at the door where two voices could be heard, it was the remaining companions of Gismarick._

" _Fine then, guess I'll just have to kill them too," grumbled the fire wizard._

 _Kharzark walked up to the door and knocked on it, on the other side the remaining two companions looked at each other with surprised looks on their faces, both of them were highly unsure why someone was knocking on the door from the inside. One companion, a person who wielded a two-handed sword, opened the door and peered inside, he got a fist covered in fire smashing into his face in response by Kharzark. The hit sent the man flying into a wall head first, snapping his neck. The surviving companion of the now deceased Gismarick was too slow to avoid his own death at the hands of a savage Kharzark, it was a gruesome death.  
_

 _The once proud fire wizard had been reduced to a shadow of his former self, he stood in the ruined villa with the corpses of his enemies around him and a solemn appearance on his face, he gripped his wrist tightly and stared ahead of him. The torture session had not only altered Kharzark's appearance but also his mind had snapped, the last vestiges of his original personality became a smouldering ruin underneath a more savage and brutal mind._

" _Agony, it's all I can feel," mumbled Kharzark to himself. "By the name of Hell itself, what am I supposed to do now? I won't disappear because of this, I cannot do that. But, I'm changed beyond believe. Grrrr, what am I supposed to do?!"_

* * *

The rain began to falter away and the clouds parted enough to let Kharzark see the full moon in the late night sky, surprisingly it gave a soothing feeling to him and he welcomed it. The clanking of metal against metal stirred Kharzark from his silence, he turned around to see a few Dark Followers either trying to sleep or were building some strange machines – at least in Kharzark's eyes. From what he could get out of Arfoire earlier in the day the machines were supposed to be turrets designed to fight and kill their targets, a strange device the once proud fire wizard thought, but useful nonetheless. They were preparing the island for a defensive battle.

"Guess they are useful for something after all," mumbled Arfoire, who happened to be nearby observing the whole endeavour.

"You could help them you know," Kharzark attempted to reason to the gothic witch.

"And why would I do that?"

"Respect of course."

"Respect? Take a look at yourself, people don't respect you, they fear you. That is why you are called the Interrogator, is it not?"

Kharzark growled at Arfoire. "Yeah, I know that. But deep down I want to be respected, even though I know that won't happen any time soon with the way I am."

Arfoire looked at Kharzark with a confused expression, but shrugged it off and walked away, leaving the fire wizard alone by himself at the window, although he could hear the witch mumbling to herself about using eggplant creatures for the defence of the island. He looked outside to see the rain had finally stopped, the cracked window was covered in rain drops and water was leaking through the crack. Kharzark decided to resume his attention to the night sky that laid outside, despite the loud noises that occurred around him he kept quiet and continued to stare outside, at what no one was sure, not even Kharzark himself. The night was long and the sounds of the construction of machines rang from the old ruined factory through the air, the seeds of war were being planted.


	38. Fall of a Pirate, Rise of a Captain

**Chapter 37: Fall of a Pirate, Rise of a Captain**

 _The weather was not as good as the mad wise women would foretell to idiotic travellers, especially out at sea along the eastern coast where rain pelted down heavily and the wind was without mercy, sailors out at sea and people standing along the high rocky coasts were subjugated to the harsh weather. In a port town along a flat part of the eastern coast there was a harbour overflowing with imperial naval ships, over two hundred and fifty to be exact. The naval ships were not very high but had tall masts and a large rod made of either iron or bronze at the front that was used for smashing into enemy ships, row upon row of oars were visible on two separate decks._

 _The town itself was large and was once known to be the trading capital of the east before the rise of the pirates, now it had been converted into a military harbour town that was used by the Empire as a base of operations in their war against the pirates led by Severia the Pirate Queen. At first, the raids were minor and not much trade was interrupted, that was the case until a town was razed to the ground and the land was burned before being sowed with salt. Ever since then mercenaries and bandits had taken their blades and offered their services to Severia, if they managed to get out to sea of course. Years of raiding had given Severia and her pirates a fierce reputation, there were even a few names that stood out and where known to many within the Empire, some of these names were; Severia the Pirate Queen of course, Stephen the Fierce who was also Severia's twin brother, Alexios the One-Eyed who was the leader of the mercenaries that were the first to sign up with Severia, then there was John the Raider and Kyo the Halberd Master._

 _What was an interesting fact about the pirates was their social structure, they were united under a single ruler –which was Severia – and her lieutenants who commanded several naval ships, then there were the commanders that acted as the third rank in the hierarchy, they were the right hand of the lieutenants. Finally there was the mass of the pirates who acted as the life and blood of the pirate world, they were the soldiers and were utterly loyal to Severia. It was a pirate kingdom with only naval ships as their territory, it was an interesting concept and the pirate kingdom was always on the move, raiding the coastline and destroying settlements if they found any. Not even the southern coast was safe from Severia's pirate onslaught._

 _The port town that the imperial navy was situated in was called Rodrigopolis, it had been named after a king who ruled a small kingdom along the eastern coast before the rise of the Empire, it had been a city once and the capital of the long dead kingdom but had been raised to the ground during a war, it was later rebuilt and the name for the new town remained. At any rate it was in danger with the war against the pirates. It had been attacked and sacked by the pirates before but the harbour town had been saved only by the efforts of the local militia and the army that arrived from the Imperial City which was led by Lucius Amullius – an old friend of Lothar before his betrayal. When the army arrived the navy, under the command of an admiral by the name of Terminus Maximus, was then sent to the town to regroup with Lucius and prepare for the battle against the pirates._

 _Lucius stood on the deck of the main command ship, the wind was starting to pick up in strength and blew toward the south-west, he sighed and stared out at the sea, there was many things going on in his mind. One of them was the thought of his old friend, Lothar, betraying the Empire and the slaughter of the imperial army along the north border, it was something that the young officer had yet to comprehend._

" _Damn that bastard," grumbled Lucius to himself. "I swear, if I ever see him again I'll kill him!"_

" _I have no doubt you will," remarked a voice behind him._

 _Lucius turned around and saw his superior commander, Terminus Maximus, standing near him with his arms behind his back. The admiral wore the usual uniform for officers in the imperial army, this consisted of a steel breastplate with chainmail sleeves, steel arm and leg pieces and a steel helmet with a plume of feathers at the top, a red cloak was strapped to his back and a sword was attached to his left waist. He had a clean shaved face and his short blonde hair was hidden underneath his helmet, despite looking so young the admiral was actually in his early fifties, much to the surprise of Lucius and everyone else in the navy and army._

" _Personally I wish I was reassigned to the northern border just for that purpose, but duty calls. We cannot allow the pirates to go unchecked any more," said Lucius with a determined tone._

 _Terminus nodded and stood next to Lucius. "I know you will do the Empire proud in the battle to come, I also know that the soldiers under my command will too fight proudly for their homeland, but it is a pity that a large number of our soldiers had to be reassigned to defend what is left of the northern border. I wonder, is there any connection between the barbarian scum and the pirates?" wondered Terminus._

" _Not that I am aware of, admiral. Besides, I doubt the pirates would have anything to do with the barbarians at all. Anyway, who is this Severia the Pirate Queen? Is she connected to the Severia who disappeared a year or two ago along with her twin brother?"_

" _I believe so, one of the crewmen on her personal ship is called Stephen, I have no doubt that they are the missing twins."_

 _"Should we inform their family?"_

" _No, it is better to not tell them, after all, those twins are going to be food for the fish after we're done with them."_

 _Lucius nodded, agreeing with Terminus before returning his thoughts to the weather. "We can't really do anything with this damn weather, can we?"_

" _No, afraid not. The last report we received about the whereabouts of the pirates suggested that they may be somewhere to the east of here, that bodes ill for us because of the direction of the wind, it would just blow us away from our targets. Looks like a storm is brewing out at sea though."_

 _Lucius noticed the lightning and the sound of thunder ringing through the dark sky, clouds had formed over much of the eastern coast and the prospect of going out to sea to face against Severia and her army of pirates had created fear in every sailor's and soldier's hearts. The priests gave offerings to the gods and prayed to them to ensure the blessings of the gods, hoping it would be enough to secure their safety in case the call to battle was issued. While they waited the sailors and the soldiers wandered around the town and many were in the tavern drowning themselves in mead and ale, hoping it would harden their hearts for battle, needless to say the price on alcohol was lowered and still the owner of the tavern made a fortune. Even Lucius, fearless as he was, even had a mug of ale to cool his nerves, now all he was waiting for was a sign from the heavens that would clear the storm and prepare the imperial expedition for battle._

 _The late morning flew past them and the afternoon rolled in, yet the weather did not cease to ease up, instead it looked as if it had gotten worse. Terminus sighed in disbelief and silently cursed the poor weather, then a thought occurred to him, in fact it was enough for the admiral to break out in a small grin._

The pirates are out there at sea where the storm is worst, that is a bonus to us as several of the bastards would have drowned by now, possibly even a few ships have sunk to the bottom. We best get prepared, those pirates are probably going to follow the direction of the wind and that would lead them near us. I suppose the fleet should move out soon.

 _Lucius noticed the grin on his superiors face and wondered what was going on inside Terminus' mind. "Um, are you alright, sir?"_

" _Yes, I am, I just had a good thought. The pirates are probably suffering out there in this weather and once we encounter them he might have the upper hand, I say we prepare for battle and wait a short while to see what will happen to the weather, then we'll head out and fight them."_

" _Sounds good to me, but how will we know that they are out to the east and not somewhere else as of this moment?"_

" _The report stated that they were to the east, or at least to the north-east, they would no doubt follow the direction of the wind to escape the hazardous weather. We will meet them out at sea before they reach the coast or anywhere near the town, hopefully at least. I doubt that our battlemages will be of use in this fight, especially those who use fire."_

" _The ones who practice in the art of water and wind might be of use."_

" _I realise that, but there are too few wizards here, and last I checked most were healers and fire users. No, this will have to fall on the shoulders of brute force."_

 _As Terminus stopped talking there was a change in the wind, it had changed from a south-west direction into a southern direction, the storm also calmed down a notch. It was safe to say that it was highly possible for the fleet to head out to sea and fight the pirates, if they were lucky of course. With a satisfied sigh Terminus walked off the ship and into the town, followed closely by Lucius. The two of them made their way to the centre of the harbour town and prepared to gather the sailors and soldiers together for the journey out to sea, and to a bloody battle._

* * *

 _The wind had shifted south and with that a chance to escape the storm presented itself to Severia, the Pirate Queen was not about to let the opportunity to escape the storm to leave her. She had summoned her lieutenants from the other pirate ships and waited for their arrival. Severia stood in her cabin and attempted to think of a plan to get them to the southern coast and restock on supplies, the rations in the pirate fleet had gone down and people were already starting to complain yet nonetheless they all remained loyal to their queen. It was going to be a tough decision as the coastal towns and cities in the south were far away while the eastern coast was closer, yet Severia knew of the risks that presented itself if she decided to head that way, especially since she knew of the gathering imperial expedition at the town of Rodrigopolis._

I will have to get advice from the lieutenants before I make a good decision, at least the storm has calmed down for the moment so they should get here safely, sort off anyway. As for my own idea, well, I think getting to the coast is of the most importance, we haven't had a good raid for over a month. Hmm, I think it is time to cripple the Empire and destroy their navy and army along the eastern coast, then who knows what could happen. Perhaps I could carve out an actual kingdom on land.

 _The cabin door creaked open and four people walked into the large wooden room, they stood in front the Pirate Queen and awaited for her to start the conversation. That was the norm as Severia was highly respected and was always expected to start meetings. The four people standing in front of her were her lieutenants: Stephen her twin brother, Alexios, John and Kyo. Stephen was wearing his leather armour with a thick cloak around him along with the stubbles of a beard on his face, a mace was strapped to his waist, Alexios was wearing leather armour with chainmail and had an axe strapped to his waist, his messy black hair had grown longer as had his moustache. John had shaggy chocolate brown hair that reached his shoulders, he wore leather armour with steel shoulder and leg plates, a cloak was strapped around him and steel sword was at his waist, Kyo had pale yellow hair that went down to the middle of her back and dark red eyes, she was wearing light leather armour which gave her great flexibility, a halberd was strapped to her back but looked as if it had been shortened slightly._

" _Yes, my Queen?" asked Kyo._

" _While the storm is calm at the moment I want to go over what will happen next," explained Severia. "Despite this storm I feel the need to go on a raid, perhaps even a full on battle, the nearest coastal town is called Rodrigopolis and the imperial navy is there with a part of their army. How do you all feel of the prospect of crippling the Empire?"_

 _Alexios grinned and held a fist close to his face. "Hell yeah! I'm all up for an all out battle with the Empire, we've still got to repent ourselves for not razing that damn harbour town to the ground."_

 _John nodded in agreement. "I concur with Alexios on this matter, Rodrigopolis will be a thorn in our side if we don't deal with it. Besides, I think destroying their fleet and army while they're getting drunk in that harbour town before razing it to the ground would show the Empire how invincible we are." It sounded as if John was the voice of reason if everything else failed._

 _Stephen looked doubtfully at Severia, Alexios and John, he wasn't in with the idea of assaulting Rodrigopolis but could tell that his twin sister was really into it, as was Alexios. Kyo was silent at first before sighing quietly and seemed to agree with the prospect of attacking Rodrigopolis by nodding her head in approval. The grey haired twin could only imagine what was to happen in the near future as the rest of the group discussed battle plans, the storm began to pick up again and the rain pelted down viciously onto the pirate fleet, signalling the time to move out. Alexios was the first to leave for his ship and was followed swiftly by John, Kyo took a moment to look at the weather before leaving the cabin and out into the bad weather. The Halberd Master was the most quiet person that the pirates ever knew, she hardly spoke and would normally just either nod or shake her head when needed._

 _Severia watched as her lieutenants left and noticed that her twin brother was still standing there, in fact he had hardly spoken during the short meeting and merely shrugged whenever he felt like it, it was clear to her that something was bugging him. "Hey, brother, are you alright? You're a lot more quiet than usual."_

" _Well, to be honest, not really. I'm concerned about the upcoming battle, we have lost at least two ships due to this weather, plus the wind is turning in a southern direction so perhaps we could set sail for the southern coast instead," responded Stephen._

 _Severia sighed with care and approached her brother, she looked at him and smiled, causing the man to chuckle as he patted her on the head. "Don't worry about anything, by this time tomorrow we'll have a proper kingdom to call our own."_

" _Huh, guess you're still thinking about that then?"_

" _Yep. Come on, let's get back on deck, we've got a battle to fight in this harsh storm."_

* * *

 _For several hours the pirate fleet headed towards the west in the hopes of reaching Rodrigopolis while trying to cope with the wind pushing them south, they almost lost another ship during the journey towards their destination. The imperial fleet, filled to the rim with large numbers of soldiers, set sail to the east in order to find Severia and her pirate horde. After several hours it didn't take long for the two separate fleets to encounter each other, even though it was by chance. The first to spot the other was the imperial fleet who then enacted their battle plan, this was for the fleet to separate into three main parts and surround the enemy, the smaller and quicker ships were to be set on fire and drive the pirates into the trap where they would be surrounded and destroyed. The pirates on the other hand, once they found the imperial fleet, decided that their strategy was to spread out and also try to surround their enemy while attempting to cut off the head of the snake – this meant that Severia wanted to kill the commanders to finish off the expedition. There were over two hundred and fifty imperial ships and three hundred pirate ships._

 _As the Empire positioned the first group, which was led by Terminus at the centre, made the first move and sailed forth towards the pirates in order to lead them into the trap, meanwhile Lucius led the second group to encircle the pirates from the north. The third group in the south was commanded by an officer by the name of Margaret Maesa, a woman with a fierce reputation for discipline and her hatred for pirates, she had the hardest job in the plan but swore to get through it and destroy the pirates. Lucius and Margaret, once in position, enacted their first part of the plan: releasing the fire ships around the pirates to lure them to attack the centre which was held by Terminus. It was a risky plan of attack as no one had ever used fire ships before, let alone using such a tactic in the middle of a rainy storm. Strangely enough one of the battlemages informed the commanders of such a tactic and used her fire magic to create a fire that could not be put out by water._

 _With the fire ships on the move and surrounding the pirates it was now Severia's turn, the Pirate Queen decided to split her fleet in half and led the first group towards the centre to take out the imperial admiral while the second group, led by Alexios and Kyo, manoeuvre their forces to take out the imperial ships who were trying to surround them. Severia had fought naval battles before, but she had never went up against anyone with a good tactical mind, now she was faced with three commanders who knew what they were doing, not to mention that they had battlemages with them this time. The Pirate Queen stuck with her strategy of taking out the head of the operations she rushed her half of the fleet forward towards Terminus, the imperial admiral had spread his group apart and prepared them for the inevitable clash._

" _Wait… wait… wait…," Terminus ordered his sailors. "Alright, full speed ahead! Smash them head on!"_

 _The drums from the lower decks resonated through the air as the imperial ships surged forth towards the pirates, Terminus' group was severely outnumbered but they had which the pirates were lacking in: catapults. The imperial fleet had built catapults onto the decks of their ships in case they were needed during a siege, but now Terminus had been granted permission by the emperor himself to use this weapon out at sea against the pirates and see what happens. As Severia launched her part of the fleet against Terminus the imperial admiral the catapults rained large boulders into the mass of pirate ships, sending several to the bottom of the sea, the Pirate Queen looked at her opponents and growled._

" _By the gods, they have catapults?!" she snarled. "That does it. Spread out and destroy them!"_

 _The battle had begun. Arrows flew through the wet and windy air, ships rammed into each other and sank to the bottom of the sea, catapults emptied their ammunition into the pirates and hand-to-hand combat escalated when either side boarded an opposing naval ship. The fire ships did their job and sent the pirates into the centre where they were surrounded, at least most of them, a few managed to break out of the deadlock and attacked the imperial fleet in the rear. Ships caught on fire due to the imperial fire ships and people screamed as they burnt to death. It was without a doubt one of the bloodiest battles ever fought on sea. Eventually Severia, who had boarded an imperial ship along with some of her crew and slaughtered everyone on board, noticed how they were being surrounded and the imperial fire ships were smashing their way into the pirate fleet, the Pirate Queen then saw the ship that Alexios commanded get rammed by two separate imperial ships and she watched as it went down into the water._

" _Damn these imperial pigs, damn them to hell!" yelled Severia, her emotions getting the better of her. Alexios had been a good friend of her ever since she first became a pirate, now he was dead at the bottom of the ocean. In a fit of rage she impaled an imperial soldier and threw him off the ship and into the water. "Sink this bloody ship, I think we're near our target."_

 _Her fellow pirates nodded and went about their business by setting fire to the lower decks, they then went back on their ships and watched as the imperial ship capsize and sink. Terminus, on the other hand, had rammed his ship into a commanding pirate ship and came face to face with John the Raider, the two of them stared at each other sternly for several seconds before they raced towards one another with the intent to kill. John swung his sword at Terminus who blocked it with his own, the two then clashed blade for blade, both manoeuvred around each other as the rain pelted down on them. Despite being just over fifty Terminus proved to still be a capable swordsman and was more than a match for John the Raider._

 _As Terminus slashed and sliced at John the pirate sidestepped the admiral and sliced his sword across the imperial's right arm, blood flowed down and onto the water drenched deck. Terminus gritted his teeth and got back into the fight, his right arm wasn't as good as before but was still good enough to use. As they continued to clash blades at each other John snarled at the admiral._

" _You're going to fail in your task, imperial dog," grumbled John as he wiped his left arm over his eyes, he panted deeply for air as he stared down his opponent._

" _Heh, yeah right. This is the end for you scum," retorted Terminus._

 _The two returned to their deadly swordplay as imperial soldiers and pirates fought hand-to-hand with each other, limbs were severed and heads were rolling as they slaughtered each other. The catapults continued to unload their ammunition at the pirates but there were a few close calls, especially during the duel between Terminus and John. As Terminus kicked John in the chest and swung his sword down across the pirate's chest John elbowed the admiral away and stood up straight with a vicious glare in his eyes, when all of a sudden a large boulder came falling through the sky and crashed into the ship, more specifically on top of John. Terminus had seen some terrible things during his career but this took the cake as the saying would go, limbs were crushed and blood was splattered all over the ground. The ship creaked and finally cracked, it sank to the bottom of the sea with anyone unfortunate enough to be on it, Terminus and those who followed him quickly made it back to their ship in time._

" _That takes care of John the Raider," sighed Terminus, he ignored the sounds of one of his soldiers vomiting his guts out after that. The admiral looked over to the north-east to see Lucius' ship smash into another. "Good luck, Lucius."_

 _Lucius boarded a pirate ship alongside his soldiers and began to fight the pirates in hand-to-hand combat, as the imperial officer stabbed his sword through the neck of one of the pirates he noticed that the pirates on the ship he had boarded were more ferocious than the others, he looked up at one of the flags and noticed the symbol: it was man with scaled skin, long hair and a trident in his hands, it was the god of the sea and it was the symbol of Severia the Pirate Queen. Lucius had hit the jackpot. He turned around and saw two people staring at him ferociously, it was Severia and Stephen, both clutched their bloodied weapons tightly and attacked Lucius and his group of soldiers._

 _Stephen swung his mace at Lucius, almost knocking him off his feet, the imperial officer blocked the next few strikes for the enxt few minutes before being punched in the face and the mace slammed into the chest, sending Lucius to the ground. The imperial officer grunted as he tried to get up but failed as Stephen put a foot on his chest and stared at him as he held the mace high above him._

" _Your time is up," said Stephen calmly. "Now it is time to die."_

" _Not today!" retorted Lucius as he swung his sword at Stephen's legs, slicing the left leg and causing the grey haired man to wince in pain. The imperial officer then got Stephen to fall to the ground by rolling away, he then quickly got to his feet and pushed the grey haired man firmly to the ground and stabbed him through the gut, the young pirate cried out in pain and caught the attention of Severia._

" _Wha- NO!" yelled Severia. She slammed the bottom of her trident into the face of an unfortunate imperial soldier and broke their nose, she then kicked them off the ship and let them drown in the sea. Severia stabbed her trident through the neck of another soldier and made her way to her brother, she ran up to Lucius and slammed the trident handle across his face, sending him to the ground. "Brother! Brother! Stay with me, stay alive!"_

 _Stephen looked up at Severia and grinned cheerfully at her. "There isn't any reason to worry, we'll be together again someday in the heavens, just not now. My time is up. Stay strong and get through this alive, *cough* *cough*. Good luck, sister, I love you as always."_

 _Severia cried her eyes out and her tears became mixed up with the rain water that flowed down her face, her brother died in her arms, his blood stained her steel gauntlets. Despite the chaos that was occurring all around her Severia couldn't hear anything, to her everything was in a void and all greyed out, her attention was focused on one thing: the lifeless body of her brother Stephen. She had never considered what would happen if Stephen would die, she just thought that it would never happen. But it did happen tight before her eyes. Severia ignored the cries of her fellow pirates and of the enemy, instead she continued to stare at the corpse of her brother. Suddenly a boulder from a catapult crashed into the ship and it began to sink into the sea. Lucius stood up and rallied his soldiers together._

" _Come on, let's get outta here!" Lucius ordered his troops. They managed to get off the capsizing ship and watched as it sank into the sea along with Severia who was still holding her brother's corpse. It was clear how the battle will turn out, the Empire was going to emerge victorious._

* * *

 _Severia woke up on the beach, the storm had passed but the dark clouds were still there in the sky, she looked around her and noticed that she was on a wooden raft that was on the beach, pieces of naval ships were floating around the beach or had landed on the sandy ground, even pale corpses had wandered onto the beach. The Pirate Queen looked over to her right and saw the corpse of her twin brother, it had washed up onto the shore and was facing the sky. She crawled over to him and checked his heartbeat, much to her dismay her fears were a reality: he was truly dead. As Severia wept she looked out to sea and saw the remains of the imperial fleet sailing back to Rodrigopolis, it was clear to her that the Empire had won._

" _It's my fault, it's all my fault that Stephen died," mumbled Severia. "I shouldn't have been so ambitious… if only… if only… GRRRRAAAAAHHHH!"_

 _Never in all her life had Severia been so angry, so mortified, so full of wrath. Her dreams of a pirate kingdom in the eastern part of the Empire was in ruins and she was the sole survivor of what was once the most feared enemy the Empire had known at sea, but she was now at a crossroad. What was she to do now? Restarting her pirate career looked like a no-go idea, but she also couldn't go home either, so what was she to do? The first step was obvious: bury Stephen._

 _That proved to be a harder task than she anticipated, first the Pirate Queen had to discard the armour off her brother and carry his corpse of the beach and into a nearby forest clearing, then came the hardest task: preparing a grave. Since Severia had no spade she decided to use whatever materials that could be salvaged from the wreckage, eventually she made a shovel and managed to dig a rectangular hole in the ground. Stephen was placed within a handmade wooden coffin and was lowered into the grave, it was covered up and a large piece of stone was placed at the head of the grave, carved into the stone was the words 'Here lies my twin brother, Stephen. May his remains rest at ease and his soul make its way to the heavens. Words carved by his loving sister: Severia'._

" _Farewell, brother, I hope our souls meet again the halls of Heaven, if we are to make the journey there," said Severia solemnly. She would have cried more if there were any more tears to shed, but Severia had finally run out. She looked up at the sky and noticed that the clouds had parted and her gaze fell upon the bright night sky. Severia gripped her trident tightly, kissed her brother's headstone and walked away into the night, without purpose or care as the loss of her brother had robbed the former pirate of many emotions. Never would Severia smile as happily as she did whenever she was around Stephen._

* * *

 _Severia huddled to herself as she gripped her dark grey cloak around her body, the cold winter air was freezing cold as the former pirate made the journey north towards the Northern Wasteland, she kept glancing left and right to make sure no one was around her and, much to her own comfort, there wasn't a soul in sight. The trees and snowy grass fields were barren of all manner of life, it was a surprise to Severia as she had expected to be some sort of animal life around, but there wasn't any at all. She did wonder why it was so cold though. At least half of the Empire and much of the territory across the northern border was subjected to the snowy winter, but rarely did it get freezing cold, even at sea it wasn't as bad._

 _But why make the treacherous journey to the Northern Wasteland at all? A month after the battle of Severia's Folly and the death of Stephen the former Pirate Queen had travelled across the Empire in disguise and heard many things. The first was the decimation of the pirates and the freedom of the eastern coast from the pirates, then there was the constant barbarian attacks along the heavily impacted northern border, the barbarians had even managed to get at least fifty miles near the Imperial City before they were destroyed in battle, Lothar had gone missing and Kharzark had been pillaging the southern territories before disappearing around the western territories. Of course there were two other rumours that caught Severia's attention, the first was reports of the man she called 'The Wraith', apparently he had been sighted around the Imperial City, then there was talk about the strange events occurring in the Northern Wasteland. That piqued Severia's interests and she decided to investigate the Wasteland._

 _Getting to the northern border was harder than she anticipated, but crossing it proved almost impossible, but when Severia did cross it she felt a pair of eyes piercing through her very soul, she had turned around to see two eyes that flared blue and red glaring at her from the darkness. It was the first time she had encountered Wraith, and it wouldn't be the last, and she knew it. Severia would later describe Wraith as a ghost of a man who would glare into the very souls of people, he would creep out of the shadows and his mere presence is enough to frighten people to death, she would later say that he was some sort of messenger or champion of the god of Hell. After what seemed like an eternity Severia ran north as fast as she could to get away from the glaring eyes, and days later she ended up in a frozen wasteland in the middle of nowhere._

" _Curse this damn weather," Severia grumbled to herself. "I'm out of food, water, firewood and other supplies, not to mention I'm tired and cold. Damn this all to hell!"_

 _Severia leaned against a tree and collapsed to the ground, she felt all her fatigue washing over her and eventually the former pirate fell unconscious. What happened next was a complete surprise to her. Severia woke up and saw that she was being carried by someone who was wearing a black cloak, grey steel plated armour and a steel helmet that covered the face and had several spikes on the top, making it look like an iron crown, it was strapped to his waist. He had red eyes and silver hair, despite the raging cold weather he didn't seemed to be fazed by it, instead he continued to carry Severia through the cold climate and towards an unknown destination. The stranger looked down at Severia and an emotionless look was on his face._

" _Are you feeling alright?" the heavily armoured stranger asked Severia._

" _I… I think I'm okay," Severia replied weakly. "Who… who are y...you?"_

" _My name is Agandur the Dark Lord, I am lord of the Northern Wasteland. I happened to be passing through this land and I found you by a tree, you were shivering all over and I decided to help you. We're actually close to the south-east border of my domain, it is a lot more warmer there and I'll answer any question you have, I'm sure you have many."_

 _Severia nodded and fell into a peaceful slumber, as she fell asleep the Pirate Queen wondered why the Dark Lord of the Northern Wasteland was wandering around a frozen landscape, plus she was confused as to why he was wearing an interesting set of armour. Nonetheless Severia obeyed Agandur's words and fell asleep. When she woke up the Pirate Queen found herself in a different environment entirely, directly in front of her was a large mountain range made up of tall, dark mountains that seemed ancient and proud and there was little to no grass to be found, the environment appeared to be quite dead or just corrupted. Severia sat up and saw the Dark Lord, still in his suit of armour, standing up and looking at the mountains, he appeared to be thinking about something and hadn't realised that Severia had woken up. Severia coughed for his attention and got it._

" _Hmm? Oh, didn't realise you woke up. How are you feeling?" the Dark Lord asked._

" _I think I'm better than before," replied Severia as she stood up. "Um, thanks. But why were you wandering around that frozen landscape? And how are you the lord of the Northern Wasteland?"_

" _To answer your first question I was investigating the area for a good place to construct some sort of outpost or fortress, the answer to your second question is quite easy: I took it by force since there was hardly anyone there to resist. I am creating a new nation in the Wasteland that will unify the world under my influence, there will be freedom for all people, corruption will cease and justice will be served."_

 _Severia was immersed with those final words, 'freedom for all people, corruption will cease and justice will be served', it sounded good to her. "I like the sound of that," commented Severia._

 _The Dark Lord smiled at her. "That's good to hear. Say, since you like my ideals would you care to join me and my world mission? I think you would fit in, Severia the Pirate Queen."_

" _How do you know who I am?"_

" _I have spies within the Empire and they took notice of you, so naturally I hear of things."_

" _Did you know I was in that frozen landscape?"_

" _I guessed that you would be somewhere around there. Lucky I found you when I did, who knows what would have happened. Anyway, let us get going, the fortress of Nazarlbur is nearby and that will allow us entrance into my domain. Then who knows, maybe you'll become my third Dark Captain."_

" _Third Dark Captain? What do you mean?"_

" _There are two others who have been in a similar position as you, their names are the Nameless One and Lothar. The Nameless One is my right hand and thus is usually called Agandur's Right Hand, Lothar is usually called the Bloodthirsty. I think you will fight right in. Care to join?"_

 _Severia looked at the Dark Lord and wondered whether she should join him, the names of the Nameless One and Lothar put dread in her heart but at the same time she knew that there was a chance for vengeance against the Empire for the destruction of the pirates and the death of her brother, the names of Lucius Amullius and Terminus Maximus and even Margaret Maesa filled the Pirate Queen with hatred. It became clear to Severia about what path she should take: the path of darkness and vengeance. She nodded at the Dark Lord Agandur and smiled slightly._

" _I wish for vengeance, I wish for justice, I will join you," said Severia sternly._

 _The Dark Lord smiled at Severia and patted her head with care, the Pirate Queen was struck with awe at how caring he was towards her, it felt like a father-daughter relationship to Severia. As they walked north-west on a dirt path Severia would come to regard Agandur the Dark Lord as a father, the father she always wanted. She became one of the Dark Lord's most loyal followers and rivalled Agandur's Right Hand in fanatical loyalty._

" _A father you will always be to me," Severia told the Dark Lord, causing the tall silver haired man to smile._

* * *

"A father you will always be to me," Severia mumbled to herself. She was laying in a bed and was covered in bandages, her armour had been discarded and was piled neatly alongside her bed, the walls were full of cracks and holes. The old abandoned farmhouse may have been fortified by Agandur's Right Hand, but he had yet to understand how to fix a wall properly.

After her defeat in Lowee at the hands of Brian the Shadow Walker the Dark Captain had been rescued by Arfoire at the behest of the Right Hand, the wounded Severia was then subjected to harassment by the gothic witch before she was sent to the Zune District so Kharzark could have some allies in his struggle to come. Not long afterwards the Right Hand's Dark Followers took care of Severia and patched up her wounds, although she wasn't quite sure why there was a large talking rodent walking about the place, apparently he was a companion of Arfoire but remained behind due to something concerning a certain busty nurse. Severia never bothered to learn the talking rat's name, nor could she care less.

"Hmm? You say something?" asked the Right Hand as he popped his head into Severia's room.

"No, nothing at all," replied Severia in a monotone voice.

The yellow eyed man stared at his fellow Dark Captain for a few more seconds before shrugging, leaving Severia alone once more. She looked outside the broken window and saw the sun rising over the treetops, Severia thought it to be beautiful, though she knew that her fellow Captains wouldn't care or, in Lothar's case, grumbled severely about it. Right there and then Severia wish to be alongside the Dark Lord once more and love him as a father.

* * *

 **A/N: Last part of Severia's back story completed (possibly), and this has been my longest chapter to date so far. Who do you think is the most interesting Dark Captain so far and why? They don't all sound so bad now… right? Plus, don't ask me why I referenced Warechu at the end of this chapter, I don't know either. Anyway, if you have a suggestion then by all means leave a review with said suggestion, question or something else, I'm all ears. Have a good day readers.**


	39. The Next Stage

**Chapter 38: The Next Stage**

The sun had risen over the horizon and people all throughout Gamindustri began to wake up, they woke up either from a rooster, an alarm clock or the crashing sounds of cutlery in the kitchen sink, but for a certain Ancient the way he was woken up was not of his best interests. Although many people would have wanted to be in his position if they ever knew how he woke up on that early morning. Brian had a peaceful sleep after Blanc left his room and throughout the night he was not troubled with nightmares, which was something he was relieved about, but once he woke up he got quite a shock.

The Ancient grumbled and moved slightly as life awoke in him, he attempted to move his arms but something was blocking their movement, it was heavy but not so heavy as he could at least move his arms just a bit. As Brian opened his eyes he was met with a peculiar site, and one he had not expected at all – under the bedsheets alongside him were the two CPU Candidates of Lowee, Rom and Ram. What added to his surprise was that Rom and Ram were in their HDD forms and were asleep, Rom was situated around his right arm and had it in a tight grip, Ram was over on his left arm and had her legs wrapped around it, both had their heads against Brian's shoulders and an arm over his chest. Most people would have considered themselves lucky if they had ever gotten in that type of situation, but not Brian, he was confused as to why Rom and Ram were in his bed, and why they were in HDD.

 _Whatever the reason might be, they do look cute like this. I'd hate to wake them up but I want answers, and then there is the scene that might occur if Blanc walks in. What would she do to me? Ah crap, now I'm worried for my own safety!_

The quiet yet cute groans from Rom entered his ear and made the Ancient look at her, she seemed peaceful and happy about the fact that she was snuggling against her proclaimed older brother, Ram too appeared to be in that position as well. Brian sighed, laid his head back on the pillow and stared at the white ceiling. He agreed with himself that Rom and Ram were adorable despite begin annoying troublemakers, yet the twins had become clingy to the poor Ancient, the scene in the bed was proof enough of that. Yet he could not comprehend as to why they where in his bed while in HDD, if anyone was to enter the room they would make the wrong conclusion and Brian would be branded for life. Slight movements coming from Ram interrupted his train of thoughts and he focused his attention on her, the young Candidate was starting to wake up and yet her legs remained locked around his left arm. Ram yawned loudly and opened her eyes to see Brian staring at her.

"Hi there, big bro," Ram greeted Brian in a groggy voice.

"Um, Ram, what are you doing in my bed?" Brian asked as calmly as he could without waking Rom up.

"Taking a nap."

"I figured that. But why in my bed? And why are you and Rom in your HDD forms of all things?"

"Well, you hardly ever see us using HDD so we thought it would be a good surprise. Do you think we're absolutely cute in HDD or what? Be honest~" Ram had a playful grin on her face as she stared at Brian.

"I, er… well, I would be lying if I said that you two weren't." Brian had to turn away slightly so Ram didn't see the tinge of red in his cheeks, nonetheless it was the answer that Ram wanted and it made her happy, so happy in fact that the Candidate wrapped her arms around Brian's neck and brought her face directly into contact with his left cheek. She giggled and snuggled against him.

"Wh-What?! Ram, what are you doing? And can you please just answer my first question as well?" Brian was quite shocked at Ram's behaviour, although he knew that any guy with a little girl complex would be have been ecstatic to have been in such a situation, not Brian though – he was just in a confused state and wondered why Ram was acting strangely. "Ram, is something the matter? You're acting strange."

Ram looked at Brian and the happiness that was once all over her face had disappeared, she now appeared to be sad and down in the dumps. The Candidate loosened her grip on Brian and sat on her knees directly next to him, a sad yet serious expression was plastered on her face. "Big brother, you're leaving today, did you forget?" Ram informed Brian.

"Yeah, so it is," mumbled Brian, he had nearly forgotten it was his last morning in Lowee. He looked over to his window and noticed that the sun had risen, looking back at Ram there was one question in his mind that he wanted to know. "What's the time?"

"I'm not sure, possibly near seven or eight in the morning," replied Ram. She then crawled back under the bed covers and hugged Brian around the chest, her head rested under his chin. "Rom and I just wanted to spend the morning with you before you left with Angel to goodness knows where."

Brian found that answer reasonable enough, with his left arm now free he moved his hand over to Ram's head and patted her gently, she smiled and nuzzled against his chest. Suddenly one of Rom's arms moved around Brian's neck and her face was brought closer to him, it still looked peaceful and happy. Brian looked back at Ram to see her sniggering away to herself. "Ram, why is Rom doing this?" he asked the pinkish haired goddess.

"She just loves her big brother," Ram answered with a bright smile that caused Brian to blush, this did not go unnoticed by Ram who just chuckled at him. "Don't worry about it, it's nothing like the type of love you'll find in Blanc's 'hidden' novels, it's just a sisterly love, that's all."

Relieved at Ram's explanation, Brian patted both White Sisters with his now two free arms, Ram smiled brightly while Rom uttered untranslatable words as her smile widened. "Hey, big brother, do feel the same way towards me and Rom?" Ram asked Brian.

"Um, I guess so," replied Brian in a slightly uncertain tone, at any rate it made Ram completely excited and she wrapped her arms around his chest firmly. With two adorable girls who were also the CPU Candidates of Lowee in his bed and almost hugging the Ancient to death he wondered how his life had managed to get him this far, not many people would have been this lucky. However, the colour from his face drained away once the door opened to reveal Blanc walking in with a small pile of clothes in her arms.

"You awake yet, Brian? I've got- what is going here?" Blanc asked, her voice becoming dangerous as she saw the scene before her.

"Well shit," grumbled Brian quietly.

Matters were made worse when Rom woke up, she yawned and opened her eyes to see a highly surprised Blanc who was becoming angrier by the second, a grumbling Brian and a grinning Ram. However, the blue haired Candidate misjudged the situation completely. "Last night was fun, wasn't it, Ram?" Rom asked her twin sister.

This was enough for Blanc to grip her fists tightly and snarl at Brian. "What did you do to my little sisters?!" Blanc growled at Brian.

"How should I know?!" yelled Brian in response, causing Rom and Ram to flinch.

"Ram, what is Blanc talking about?" Rom asked Ram.

"No idea," replied Ram.

Then a though occurred in Ram's mind, not the most greatest thought that ever been thought of but it coincided with a fact that she already knew, and the idea would help towards it, hopefully. The young Candidate crawled onto Brian's chest, her legs on either side of him and her head was dangerously close to his face, she stared directly into his eyes without blinking. Rom was confused as to what was happening, Brian was utterly surprised while Blanc looked on in shock. What surprised everyone was when Ram started to lean in towards Brian's face, her lips seemed to be targeting his own and her eyes were starting to close. It was clear what Ram was trying to do: kiss Brian. But for what purpose?

"R-R-R-Ram?! What the hell do you think you're doing?!" yelled Blanc, her rage intensifying.

Ram looked back at Blanc, a mischievous grin was on her face. "Exactly what it looks like, big sis," replied Ram. "Now then, where were we? Oh, that's right, get ready, big bro~"

As Ram's lips neared Brian's, and as Rom realised what was going to happen started to get embarrassed, a loud noise came from Blanc's direction. Everyone looked at Blanc to see one of her hands embedded in the wall and a shadow had formed over her eyes, when the Loweean CPU looked at them she had become a scary person as her trademark red glaring eye had appeared, and her rage was now directed on the unfortunate young man in the bed. Rom quickly hid under the bed while Blanc grabbed Ram by the back of her HDD uniform and chucked her out of the bed, the mad driven CPU then materialised her hammer and brought it down upon Brian's head, knocking him out cold. As he slide into unconsciousness the Ancient pondered whether Ram was serious about going for a kiss, and if Blanc was ever going to get over it.

* * *

 _Fire. That was all that the young boy could see. That and blood, corpses of his kinsmen, stone ruins and smoke. The sky was dark red and smoke filled the air. Gripping his curved dagger tightly he and his young friend made a run for it towards what remained of the shrine, the path towards it was not an easy one though. The last of the Ancients fought bitterly over what was left of their village with every ounce of strength left in their disposal, either by using their inborn ability to harness certain powers and use them at their own will or by the might of the sword, spear, bow/crossbow and their valour. From the old man's home the young boy and girl ran, the shrine was at the eastern part of the village surrounded by trees, it had been heavily damaged but the area was still under Ancient control._

 _To get to it, however, meant getting through the chaotic battlefield that sprawled across almost the entire village, and that was to be no easy task. The young boy and his childhood friend sprinted down a street that they hoped would lead them to the shrine, but instead they found themselves in a street skirmish. The chain mail armoured Ancients with leather tunics fought desperately against their enemy, which the two children saw for the first time in their life. The enemy were wearing outlandish uniforms, although the Ancients would have called anything that didn't look like their outfits outlandish, the outfits looked like padded armour around the chest, arms and legs, underneath that they wore dark clothing and helmets that covered most of the head. They carried swords, spears and large rectangular shield, some the sharp bladed weapons appeared to be energy sabres that could cut through some types of armour. Some even carried prototype weapons called a 'gun'. The enemy soldiers even had a strange insignia on their outfits and shields, it was in the shape of a 'G', possibly meaning 'Gamindustri'. At any rate the area was completely unsafe and the path was blocked._

 _The young boy and girl began to turn back towards their starting point to rethink their plan, and hopefully tun into the old man, but fate had a different idea for them. Two Ancient warriors were killed right before their eyes and their killers turned their attention at the two children, the enemy soldiers looked at them in a confused state before shrugging and advanced towards them, their orders were clear: kill all Ancients, all of them. As they approached the two children blasts of lightning sparked through the air around them and landed on the enemy soldiers, it was enough to shock them to the ground, then a red haired woman with lightning engulfed around her appeared from a ruined house and was carrying a two-handed axe made of lightning. She looked over at the two children and sighed before battling the enemy. The two of them recognised her from the old man's house._

" _Get outta here, now!" yelled the red haired woman, her eyes sparkled with lightning as she hacked away at her opponents, who were more than eager to kill her._

 _The two children didn't argue and ran at full speed back towards the old man's house, but as they neared their destination they found the way blocked by debris and fire, the battle had finally gotten them surrounded. "We're doomed, aren't we?" the young boy asked his female friend._

" _I don't know, but if we are to die then we'll die side-by-side," replied the young girl with a smile on her face. "How does that sound?"_

 _The smile was enough to make the boy break out in a slight smile of his own. "Alright, if its with you then I suppose I can be happy."_

 _The girl smiled brightly at his response. Just then a part of what appeared to have been a store collapsed and an enemy soldier was crushed underneath, out of the rubble came someone they knew: the old man who had send them towards the shrine in the first place. Eyes appeared from under his hood, they were filled with sadness and grief. He glanced around before walking up to the two children and sighed with relief to see them alive, when he was in front of them he kneeled down to their hight and patted their heads with affection._

" _I'm glad to see you two alive. Sorry for making you go to the shrine alone, I thought it would have made less distraction," the old man apologised to them._

" _I-It's alright, we're still alive so it's a-okay," said the young girl, trying to calm the situation._

 _The old man shook his head while chuckling, he patted her head and sighed. "Well, now you know what we are up against, I'm sorry you had to see all of this. Anyway, there's a street that is still under our control that leads to the shrine. It heads up from my home in the mountain range towards the north-east, then it goes east and down another street that arrives at a dirt path, then it heads into the trees and the shrine. Let's go!"_

 _The tree of them ran through the ruined house and back to the old man's home, they arrived outside it to see not all was well, the enemy had arrived outside it and were battling the Ancients for control of the area, swords clashed and spears smashed against each other while blood flowed across the ground and fire swayed as the wind picked up speed. An enemy soldier swung his blade at an Ancient warrior but missed, creating a moment for the Ancient warrior to slash his sword across the enemy's chest and finally across the gut and up through the chest and the face, killing the man. The old man grimaced and began to lead the two children away towards the path he had told them when a nearby house collapsed and some sort of sonic boom blew everyone away to the ground, then in the smoke the figure of a person could be seen. The person appeared to have long hair in two thin braids that flowed down from either side of the head, the smoke concealed the clothes and any weapon that they had, although it looked as if the person was wearing a skirt and no armour._

" _Who the hell is that?" the young boy asked the old man beside him._

" _It's her..." mumbled the old man._

 _Just then the battle resumed and the strange woman in the smoke, who was still covered in it, picked up some sort of throwing spear and threw it straight into the battle, the spear flew past the face of an Ancient and straight towards the young boy. The old man yelled for him to get out of the way while the young girl screamed at the scene before them, but the boy knew that there wouldn't be enough time to get out of the way. The spear neared him and everything went black._

* * *

"Wake up! Please, wake up!" Blanc pleaded to the unconscious Brian.

The little goddess was sitting on Brian's bed and attempted to wake the Ancient up as he body was twitching and his hands were also twitching, almost violently. After Blanc had knocked Brian out her rage was about to be vented against the twin CPU Candidates for whatever she thought had occurred in the bed, that was until Ram told her what was going on and her reason for almost kissing Brian – it caused Blanc to go red with embarrassment and she allowed Rom and Ram to go, with a deadly warning though. As Blanc was about to leave the bedroom and mull over what Ram said to her she heard groaning coming from Brian, the CPU turned around to see the young man twitching all over and looked to be in pain, at least mentally. Blanc then decided to wake him up as best she could but failed to do so. Brian would turn around and twitch which caused Blanc to become utterly guilty, she had caused this to happen, she had knocked him out, she had caused Brian to have a bad dream of sorts, it was all her fault she concluded.

"I shouldn't have knocked him out, damn my temper to hell," grumbled Blanc. "After all he has done for us I just had to knock him out and cause him pain."

However, much to Blanc's joy, Brian's eyes shot open and he woke up. He shot up and sat straight, his eyes flared blue and he was panting deeply for air, he looked over to his left and saw Blanc looking at him, a mixed sense of joy and fright was in the expression she wore on her face. His eyes returned to normal and Brian then looked back at Blanc, sighing in relief.

"Sorry about that, Blanc," Brian apologised.

"No, I should apologise," retorted Blanc. "I knocked you out due to a misunderstanding, I'm sorry."

"Misunderstanding? Oh, you mean when you saw your little sisters in the same bed as me in their HDD forms, when Rom said something about having fun last night and Ram trying to kiss me? Yeah, I had nothing to do with all that."

"I know. Ram told me that she and Rom wanted to spend time with you, and since you hardly ever seen them in HDD they wanted to spend time with you in that form. As for the 'fun last night' line, well, they were drawing on your face and you didn't wake up."

"Huh, so that's what happened. But what about the part when Ram tried to kiss me?"

Blanc turned red and glanced away from Brian's gaze, she appeared nervous and was hesitant to answer his question. "Um, well… i-it was because Ram was causing a prank to annoy me, and it worked." Despite her explanation Brian was not convinced that it was the true answer, his facial expression showed this.

"I don't think you're telling me the complete truth, Blanc," said Brian.

"Would you prefer being hit on the head with my hammer again?" asked Blanc in her threatening tone.

"No, I'm fine. I'll believe you."

Blanc sighed, what she had told Brian was not the truth, yet it wasn't a complete lie either. Ram had a motive for her actions, a small part of it was playing a prank on Brian and Blanc, but the main reason was that she was attempting to help a certain someone with her feelings towards the young man.

* * *

" _Blanc! Why did you do that?!" yelled Ram as she reverted back to human form, Rom too did the same as she looked over the bed._

" _You damn well know why I did it," growled Blanc as she tightened her grip on the hammer. "You three… you three, gah! You're all perverts!"_

" _Perverts? We aren't perverts!" responded Ram as she got off the floor._

" _Yeah, we aren't like that, big brother isn't a pervert," Rom informed Blanc._

" _Then explain what the hell was going on. Why were you trying to kiss him?!"_

" _I was doing it for you, big dummy!"_

 _Blanc was stunned, she had never expected that answer to escape from Ram's mouth. "What do you mean you were doing it for me?"_

" _It's obvious: you love him. I was trying to help you realise that."_

 _Blanc was silent, her hammer disappeared and she sat on the bed, silence rang through the room. The CPU of Lowee had guessed that she liked the young man, ever since they met back at Planeptune Blanc had felt comfortable around the Ancient despite his reputation, she found him to be a rather nice person once you've gotten to know him well enough. Brian's words about Blanc during his duel with Angel had made her heart flutter, but their date a few days back had set the seal for Blanc, although she hid the feelings that were bubbling through her mind, and she did it well, at least at first. Blanc guessed that Rom and Ram – possibly just Ram – found out about Blanc's feelings when they got back to the Basilicom from the battle at the military facility, the young Candidate must have figured it out when Blanc was reading a book with Brian after he was sent to his room for recuperation, the CPU did seem quite happy being with him._

" _I'm sorry," Blanc apologised to the Candidates of Lowee. "I'm sorry for what happened."_

" _Meh, its cool," said Ram._

" _Uh-huh," added Rom._

" _Just don't do anything like that again, understood?"_

 _Rom and Ram nodded, even though it was directed towards Ram. The next few minutes involved Rom and Ram explaining why they were in bed with Brian in their HDD forms and what Rom meant by 'fun last night', eventually everything was cleared up and Blanc was left in a better mood, somewhat at least. Rom and Ram were then told to leave the room and have breakfast, then Blanc was about to leave the room until Brian started to twitch and groan._

* * *

"Hmm? Blanc? Hello, you there?" Brian asked as he waved a hand in front of her face to get the CPU's attention. Finally Blanc snapped back into reality to see Brian looking straight into her eyes and his face was very close to her own, she jolted back back slightly and regained her composure.

"I-I'm fine, just recollecting my thoughts," explained Blanc. "Anyway, what about you? Were you having some sort of bad dream?"

Brian grimaced and looked away, he didn't want to trouble Blanc with what just went through his head as he was still trying to make sense of it. It wasn't related to the nightmare he had back in Planeptune that's for sure, it was similar to the vision he had back in the ruins of the village in the north Virtua Forest though, and that sent shivers up Brian's spine. For some reason the dream set it after the events of the vision, it was as if he just had another vision, or maybe it was something else entirely. It didn't leave a good mark on Brian's mind.

"Well, it isn't anything to worry about, Blanc, just my crap nerves playing again," explained Brian.

Blanc stared at Brian sternly before sighing and looking sadly at him. "Brian, don't lie to me, I hate it when people lie to me. I thought you trusted me completely, or was that a lie as well?"

"No, that wasn't a lie at all, I trust you with my life."

"Then tell me the truth."

Brian sighed and laid back against the wall that was against the bed, Blanc did the same thing and sat next to Brian, his left shoulder and her right shoulder would touch from time to time if they moved a bit. "Fine, I'll tell you what was troubling me. Remember back during the date at the cafe?" asked Brian.

"Yes, I do remember," responded Blanc, she couldn't forget it. Brian told her about his traumatic stress disorder and the vision he had back at Planeptune, then to calm him down Blanc had held his hand and hugged him afterwards, it brought a blush to her cheeks just by remembering it.

"Back there I told you about the vision I had at the ruined village, well, I had a bad dream that seemed to be a continuation of it for some reason. I don't know why I was having a bad dream about that, when I had the vision at Planeptune it began with an old man, a red haired woman and two children who were my parents, then it ended with them preparing to leave. The dream I had continued from that point, showed people slaughtering each other in cold blood and finally some random person was about to kill the boy. Why is this happening to me?!"

Blanc noticed that his hands were twitching and he was grinding his teeth, Brian was stressed out of his mind and needed some comforting. With a comforting smile Blanc held his left hand with her right hand, their finger intertwined with each other, she looked at Brian and gave him the smile that always made him blush uncontrollably. It had the intended effect and he blushed, Brian looked away to prevent Blanc from seeing it, which was ineffective as she chuckled at the seclusive shy nature of the young man. Blanc then laid her head against his left shoulder and began to relax, what made Brian surprised was the fact that Blanc was smiling in pure happiness, thought it did start to have an effect on his twitching as it started to go away.

"You alright there, Blanc?" Brian asked the CPU.

"Yeah, I'm fine. You don't mind if I'm like this, do you?"

"No, I'm cool with it, I don't mind at all." Brian then patted Blanc's head gently with his right hand for a few seconds.

"Brian, don't be worried about that vision or the dream you had, just remember that I'm here if you need to talk to someone about it, I'll always listen to what you have to say. By the way, what's it like to have parents?"

Brian was surprised at the question, although now that he thought about it he never heard of a CPU having parents, from what he had heard the CPUs were all born from the faith of the citizens in each country so the question made some sense. "Well, I never knew my real parents, although the vision and now the dream has given some idea of their life, but I did have adopted parents who I never got along with all that well," replied Brian. "Though because of them I was never really alone during my life on Earth, so I'd say that having parents is quite good."

Blanc's grip on his hand tightened and her expression lost the happy smile. "I've always wondered what having parents was like, ever since I was born from the faith of the people I was always alone, even though there were people around to guide me in the way of ruling a nation I had spent centuries feeling alone. My only solace was with books. Then came the Console War, all of Gamindustri was thrown into a global war just because us CPUs hated each other, even throughout the war I felt alone. Then things changed for the better when we all agreed to peace and my sisters were born, for the first time I had true friends. Then you and Angel came along and now look at where we are with our lives."

"Yeah, despite with what's going on I feel happy being here. I'm glad to have met you, Blanc, I mean it."

"I know, I'm glad to have met you too. I don't want to loose you if you go up against those Dark Captains, I've heard about the previous encounters and I'm worried about you, I don't want you to die."

"Don't worry about me, you should know by now that I dislike it when people worry for my sake instead of themselves. I can handle them, I know I can."

"I hope you're right. Anyway, how's the new arm?"

Brian looked at his right arm and quietly hummed, his new arm made of Share Energy was just like his original arm, except it was blue and felt incredibly smooth, not only that but he could even feel pain if something was to inflict damage to his new arm. "Feels and acts just like the original, but only better."

"That's good. Oh, by the way, I've got you some new clothes, your last set were quite damaged so I got you a new attire."

Blanc released her grip on Brian's and got off the bed, which the young man was slightly disappointed about, the small CPU walked over the desk and picked up a small pile of clothes, she returned to the bed and placed them near Brian. Blanc picked up the coat and showed it to the Ancient, it was around the same size as his brown trench coat but this time it was white with brown lining and the symbol of Lowee on the back, Blanc looked at Brian and beamed at him brightly.

"I had this ordered for you since yesterday afternoon, I hope you like it," explained Blanc.

"It looks great. Mind if I put these clothes on now?"

Blanc nodded, she put the coat down on the bed and made her way towards the door, before she left the bedroom she stopped and looked back at Brian. "Hey, Brian, I… I… I l-l-liked having you here this past week. Can you promise to come back?"

Brian nodded. "Of course, I'll come back someday after all this mess is over." Although the young man wondered why Blanc stammered with saying that. The small CPU smiled and left the room, leaving Brian to put his new clothes on while Blanc regretted what she failed to do: confess her feelings.

* * *

There was a commotion in Blanc's office that was driving the CPU of Lowee crazy, it wasn't something she had expected at all, yet Blanc could have seen it coming if she had paid attention to past events. The CPU was standing in the middle of her room and was being interrogated by a little blonde girl in a frilly pink dress along with two heavily clad people with cameras; it was Abnes and her crew. Blanc had heard from Brian and Angel that Abnes had been annoying Neptune and Nepgear before the young men had left for Lowee, also Blanc had heard from Histoire and IF that Abnes had been stirring trouble in Planeptune for a while.

 _Guess this damn little girl must have heard about what happened yesterday, I should have known that everyone would have been talking about it eventually. Though I never expected her to come all the way up here just to brag about it._

"So you let your little sisters get captured, again," stated Abnes with a smug look. "Figures, you aren't much of a CPU, you're just a little girl."

"Grrr, I'm not a little girl, if anyone is a little girl it's you!" retorted Blanc.

"I'm not a little girl, little girl!"

Blanc cracked her knuckles and glared at Abnes. "Just what do you want?"

"To prove to the world that little girls, like you, should not be CPUs. You getting captured is proof enough, if it hadn't been for that sadist, the Shadow Walker and two other mysterious guys you and those poor little sisters of your would be dead." Abnes then turned around back to the camera and looked rather proud with herself. "If this is what will happen with little girls in charge of nations then we're better off without any CPUs, in fact I believe that the Dark Captains are a much better choice for leaders."

"If you speak in favour of the Dark Captains then you know what kind of mess you're getting yourself into," spoke a voice from the doorway.

Everyone in the room turned and looked at the doorway to see Angel carrying a tray with twelve mugs of fresh hot coffee, he had an expressionless appearance and stared sternly at Abnes, the blonde girl started to shiver in fear as she felt the sadistic aura flowing from the young man. An expressionless glare from Angel was enough for anyone to quake in fear, people back on Earth had to put up with it for a long time. The camera crew started to back off as the glare burned through their souls, even Abnes was starting to back off until she recovered herself and walked up to Angel, her microphone held up towards him.

"Why do you fight for these little girl CPUs? Is it because of some sort of perverted fetish?" Abnes asked Angel.

"Because I just do, and I don't have a fetish for little girls," replied Angel as he sipped away at the first mug of coffee. "When they transform they aren't little girls." His mind then turned towards a certain CPU from an alternate version of Gamindustri, he chuckled quietly as he remembered her.

Abnes was about to interrogate him further when Angel sighed and glared at the little blonde girl. "Now get out of my sight, your mere presence disgusts me," growled Angel. "If you thought my friend was bad when he gets angry then you've seen nothing yet, now go." He stepped away from the door and continued to glare.

Abnes took the threat to heart and, together with her camera crew, made their escape down through the hallways of the Basilicom, Blanc looked at Angel a small smile appeared on her face. "Thanks for that, Angel," Blanc thanked him.

"It wasn't much, I just can't stand the sight of her, there's something about her that makes me annoyed more than usual," commented Angel. He noticed that Blanc was staring at the tray full of steaming coffee mugs. "Yeah, these mugs are full of coffee. I'd offer you one but I'm afraid there's only eleven left."

"What, they're all for you?"

"Exactly, if you want to word it like that."

The sounds of Abnes screeching in terror filled their ears, they looked down the hallway and Angel sighed. "Sounds like they bumped into Brian," said Angel before he drank from his second mug of coffee.

Not long afterwards Brian, Rom, Ram and Mina entered Blanc's room, the twins and the Oracle were silent as they walked behind Brian who appeared to be quite happy with himself. "Don't worry, that brat isn't dead," Brian informed Blanc and Angel as he stood near them.

Blanc was quite impressed with Brian's attire, he was wearing a dark blue collared shirt with a white trench coat over it, on the back of the coat the symbol of Lowee was on it and bright for everyone to see, he also wore dark brown pants, a black leather belt and he still wore his original boots. It was clear that Blanc liked the new look. Brian noticed Blanc's stare and smiled at her.

"It all fits, thanks for the new outfit," said Brian.

"It was no problem, your old clothes were getting battle worn anyway," responded Blanc.

Just then Blanc's computer bleeped, someone or a group of people were attempting to do a video chat, Blanc opened the computer and clicked on the video chat option, three boxes appeared on the screen and the faces of Histoire, Neptune, Nepgear, Noire, Uni, Kei, Vert and Chika appeared in them. Histoire and Nepgear seemed worried while Neptune was her normal self, Noire and Uni appeared normal while Kei was fumbling with paperwork in the background, Vert had a worried expression while Chika seemed like herself. Histoire was the one to break the silence and speak first.

"I'm glad to see the lot of you safe," said Histoire. "I heard about what happened up there and I got extremely concerned for Lowee and everyone in the nation, I'm glad to see everyone safe."

Nepgear nodded her head. "I'm just glad to see that everyone's okay," said the Planeptunian Candidate.

"Um, Brian, why is your right hand glowing blue?" Noire asked Brian.

"I lost my right arm while getting Blanc back, this one is made of Share Energy," replied Brian in a calm tone as if it was normal. This got a shock out of everyone on the screen.

"Wow, I never thought Share Energy could do that, you must be close to Blanc if you gave up a limb for her," said Vert with a grin.

"Yeah, they're so close they went on a date two or three days ago," Ram informed them before Blanc pulled her ear with a snarl.

"What?! They went on a date? Ooooo, you're a smooth operator, Brian," Neptune said with a wicked grin.

"Can it, Neptune," growled Blanc while Brian sighed.

"Anyway, back to the matter at hand, well, a question at least. Who were the other two that were with you during the battle?" Histoire asked Brian and Angel.

"Wraith and a man named Victor," replied Angel as he drank away at his third mug of coffee.

"Victor? He's alive?"

"Uh, yeah. You know him?" Brian asked the tome.

"I do, I haven't heard from in a few years though." Histoire then pouted at the news of Victor being alive, though Brian and Angel wondered why Histoire cared about Victor at all. "Sorry, I should get back on track. Anyway, I think I've pinpointed where the remaining Dark Captains are. We've only sighted one around Planeptune and another one was in Lowee, therefore I have summarised that the other two are somewhere in Lastation and Leanbox, if I'm correct then the Sharicites of both countries are in danger."

"Have you got a plan?" Uni asked Histoire.

"Not entirely. Hmm, how about this: since both Lastation and Leanbox are in danger of having their Share Energy taken away how about Brian and Angel split up to tackle both situations at the same time? It'll get the danger out of the way quickly, although it would mean that visiting the nations for a holiday experience will have to be put on hold."

Brian shrugged, ultimately he didn't really care, so long as he could battle and defeat at least one of the Dark Captains then he was happy, Angel felt the same way. They both looked at one another and nodded. "Sounds good enough for me," said Angel as he finished his sixth mug of coffee.

"Me too," Brian added. "Hmm, I'll tackle Lastation and you go for Leanbox, how's that sound?"

"Why do I have to go to Leanbox instead of you?" Angel whispered to Brian.

"Do you see Vert, that's the woman with the big breasts, she's the leader of Leanbox," replied Brian in a whisper. "Also she's a gamer, plenty of MMORPGs down there I heard."

That was enough for Angel who quickly drank the rest of his coffee before agreeing with Histoire's idea. It was decided that Brian would help Noire and Uni take care of the Dark Captain in Lastation while Angel would help Vert take care of the Dark Captain in Leanbox, they also agreed that if there weren't any Dark Captains in the two nations then they would resume what they were doing before the whole mess began.

"Oh, Brian, before we leave there is one thing I want to know. Remember my question that I asked you when we had a sleepover in Planeptune? The one about which size breast you prefer," Vert asked Brian.

"Uh, yeah, I remember. What about it?" replied Brian with a tinge of red in his cheeks.

"Do you have an answer?"

Brian groaned and face-palmed before returning his gaze to the computer screen. "Yeah, I have one. I'll choose small, sorry Vert."

Vert chuckled and didn't appear to be upset in the slightest. "Don't worry, I forgive you." The voluptuous goddess then turned her gaze towards Blanc. "Looks like you've got yourself a keeper."

"Shut it," mumbled Blanc, yet a small smile had planted itself on her face.

* * *

"You ready to go, big bro?" Ram asked Brian.

"Yeah, I'm ready, I think so anyway," he responded.

Brian, Angel, Blanc, Rom and Ram were on the balcony with Mina at the doorway, Rom and Ram had transformed into their HDD forms and were waiting for Brian to get his bearings before he found himself in the air, the Ancient never got used to being high in the sky. Angel was eating a blueberry muffin and Blanc was standing close to Brian. The twin Candidates had insisted on carrying Brian to Lastation instead of Blanc, the Loweean CPU gave in and decided to carry Angel to Leanbox. Now the young men were about to leave Lowee for their set destinations and the parting was filled with sorrow.

"Brian, there's something I want to tell you," Blanc informed the Ancient.

"By all means, tell me," responded Brian as he looked at her.

At that moment Blanc was about to tell him what she had wanted to say all morning, but couldn't gather the courage to do so. "Er… it's nothing. Just remember to come back one day, and don't die on me."

"I promise. Oh, by the way, have this." Brian then handed Blanc his book on Roman history, she looked at him in a confused state.

"Why are you giving me this?"

"Something to remember me. Put it in your library and if anyone chances upon it then they'll learn about the history of a culture that helped shaped a world and my mind."

Blanc clutched onto the book tightly and beamed a bright smile at Brian. "Thank you, I'll treasure it."

Blanc handed the book to Min then she transformed and walked over to Angel, who had finished his morning snack, then before lifting him up in the air she looked back at Brian, she gave him one last smile before flying in the sky with Angel. Rom and Ram then picked up Brian and flew him towards Lastation, though on the way there he thought of one thing.

 _I'll miss everyone, especially Blanc._

* * *

As the next stage of the plan occurred two men were in a snowy grass field outside Lowee, the man with glowing blue and red eyes with dark purple pupils – which were merely dots – was clad with a weather-worn black coat, hood and scarf with dark coloured pants and barely concealed armour was sitting on the ground in the snow, his back was up against a tree. The other man who was wearing a dark brown trench coat and a top hat, a ruby tipped cane was held in his right hand, he stood near his companion. The two men, Wraith and Victor, were silent as the flying objects headed towards their destinations.

"Well, there they go," said Wraith, breaking the silence, as he and Victor watched everyone depart the Lowee Basilicom.

"Now what?" Victor asked Wraith. "What's our next move?"

"I suggest you get down to Planeptune and check up on the situation, see if you can help with anything going on there."

"Fair enough, it'll give me the chance to catch up with Lady Histoire, been a few years since I talked to her."

"She's probably mad with you, you know. Better make it up for that floating tome."

" _If_ she is angry with me. What are your plans?"

"I'm going to relax for a few days before heading out for Leanbox, got a few things to take care of down there."

"Why Leanbox?"

"I've just got something the take care of, though it doesn't involve the Dark Captains. Better get moving, you'll want to get to Planeptune before tomorrow morning."

Victor sighed and walked away towards the south, his destination: Planeptune. On the way there he knew that Histoire would be angry at him for not contacting her for years, he chuckled and continued to walk, leaving Wraith by himself. The thousand year old man breathed in and out deeply before getting some well earned rest, in his opinion. He continued to look at the sky and admire the beauty of it.

"As a great general from Earth once said; 'The die is cast'. The enemy will be more cautious from now on, that will give everyone time to prepare," mumbled Wraith. He then began to mutter the verses from the Prophecy of the Shadow Walker.

" _When six_ _comet_ _s fall from the sky_ _and four_ _captains_ _emerge_ _,_

 _When the present and the future stand to do battle and friendship suffers,_

 _When faith fails and the seas tremble,_

 _When the enemy returns and the four realms shudder,_

 _When warfare breaks loose across the land,_

 _When bloodshed ensues and a God falls,_

 _The darkness shall cover all whilst destroying time less the Divines look upon the Shadow Walker, last of the Ancients, to make the ultimate sacrifice._

Heh, can't wait for the rest of these events to occur, its gonna be hell." Wraith then chuckled to himself as he drifted to a light snooze.

* * *

 **A/N: You didn't think I would make Ram continue with that, did you? Now we've got more love interests occurring, the original idea for the story wasn't meant to have romance but after the whole Angel with Plutia idea I thought 'why not', though I must say I'm not all too good with romance so excuse me for being bad at incorporating it in this fanfic. This chapter has over 8000 words, a far cry from my earlier chapters that had from around 1000 to 3000 words before climbing up to around 4000 to 5000, don't expect any future chapter to be this long. Anyway, leave a suggestion or question if you have any and have a good day.**

 **Edit: My internet is stuffing up again and now I can't read new reviews, I don't know how long this will last so sorry if I can't read and reply to any new review.**

 **Edit 2: Just fixed it, I can now read new reviews.**


	40. The Ultimate Gamer

**Chapter 39: The Ultimate Gamer**

The air was cold and bright as White Heart flew with Angel in her arms, they went over snow clad fields, trees and hills before they reached what was considered the centre of Gamindustri: a large mountain with a single peak covered in snow. Angel had seen it when he and Brian were carried by the flat chested CPU from Planeptune to Lowee but paid little attention to it, but now without the Ancient the sadistic young man paid more attention to the singular mountain that he and White Heart were approaching. Angel took a glance to his left and in the distance he could see a small dot, he guessed that it was Rom, Ram and Brian heading towards Lastation. As they neared the mountain Angel noticed how there were many clouds surrounding it, especially near the top.

"Interesting, ain't it?" White Heart asked Angel as they flew around it.

"I've seen mountains on maps and in many games of all types, but I have never seen one up this close before," replied Angel as he stared at it. "What's it called?"

"I think it's called 'Mountain of Hope', apparently it was where the first CPU of Gamindustri was born, and died."

This sparked Angel's interests, he had never heard of there being a first CPU, though the sadist often wondered if there had been one at all when he was searching through Blanc's library for training methods and special attacks. "What was the name of this CPU?" Angel ask White Heart.

"I dunno, the book I read didn't say anything else about this damn CPU. Although, I did do a bit of research during what little spare time I had and I found absolutely nothing, I still don't even know if this so-called 'first CPU' was even a male or female, or if they even existed at all."

Angel was surprised about the fact that there were hardly any to no records of the first CPU at all. "Did you ever ask Histoire about it?" he asked the blue haired goddess.

She shook her head. "Nah, didn't think it was worth mentioning, hardly a thing to worry about."

Angel shrugged and continued through the trip in silence. They passed the mountain and arrived at the north-east border of Planeptune, down below there were trees, hills, grass fields and small farmhouses, further away to the south-west was the city of Planeptune. As the sadist looked at everything below him and back at the mountain he had a peculiar thought, or more of a question, that he wanted to ask Blanc. He looked up directly at her face and asked her the question.

"Hey, Blanc, how old are you?" he asked her.

White Heart stared at him sternly, her face was expressionless and her eyes narrowed at him, eventually the CPU sighed and replied to his question without looking at him. "Around two hundred years old, maybe even a few dozen years added to that."

"Wow, you're a cougar," chuckled Angel.

"The hell are you talking about, ass-hole?!" yelled White Heart.

"I think you know what I mean. Rom and Ram told me about it."

White Heart groaned heavily and possibly even snarled. "Damn those brats, you better not tell anyone. Got it?"

"What, about you having a love interest? Alright then, if you so insist."

"I mean it. Keep it a secret or I'll drop you here."

Angel looked down and noticed that White Heart had stopped moving through the air, down below them were jagged cliffs and the glistering waters of the sea, he looked back at White Heart and grinned in his usual sadistic way. "Go ahead, I might actually enjoy it."

The angry CPU looked at Angel as if he was a crazy madman, but eventually she just sighed and looked depressed. "Angel, do you think I might be in a relationship with Brian in the future? I mean, do I even have a chance with him?"

Angel chuckled, causing White Heart to glare at him. "What? Was what I said funny?" she asked in a threatening tone.

"No, no it isn't that, its just that the two of you are denser than I had realised," replied Angel. "You've got a good chance to be with Brian."

"What do you mean? Spill it."

"You still haven't figured it out yet? I've figured it out easily, he likes you, possibly even more than that. So I say you've got a good chance with him. You going to spill the beans to him?"

White Heart was quite surprised at what Angel just said, in fact is amazed the Loweean CPU that the one she loved could possibly harbour the same feelings towards her. With that in mind there was something that she needed to do in the near future: confess those feelings to him, easier said than done though. White Heart remembered the last two times she tried to confess but failed to do so, all because she was utterly nervous and afraid about what his response would be, it kept knawing at the back of the CPU's mind and was always in her thoughts. Angel noticed White Heart having a tense expression all over her body and started to fidget with her hands, she was obviously nervous about the whole prospect.

"Well, it's something to think about," said Angel in an attempt to calm her down. "Let's get to Leanbox before we forget."

"Uh, yeah, I better get you there," responded White Heart, she then continued to fly towards Leanbox.

Angel took a moment to glance at the wondrous view that was before him, he was looking at a wide space of water and in the distance was a very large island, although as he looked to his right he saw a smaller island further away in the distance. As he and White Heart neared the island a number of buildings along the hight coastline came into view, and eventually they flew over them and onward towards a more compacted area of buildings that was miles ahead. He glanced up at White Heart with a questioning expression, which she read as 'where are we?'.

"We're about to enter the city of Leanbox, don't ask why the names of our nations are the same as our cities, we didn't come up with the bloody idea," explained White Heart as they flew over the numerous buildings. "This place is also called the Land of Green Pastures, that can be clearly seen as there's a lot of grass fields all over the place. Not enough snow or ice around here, could use with some."

"You'd probably say that about the other nations as well I reckon. So, am I guessing correctly that the huge palace-like building over in the centre of the city is the Basilicom?" asked Angel.

"Yep. There's a balcony around the other side facing the west, I'm dropping you off there."

Just like White Heart said there was a balcony facing towards the west, as they approached it Angel noticed two women standing there waiting for them to land. When White Heart dropped Angel onto his feet he looked up at the small goddess and gave her a thumbs up. "Ta muchly for the ride, oh, and good luck with Brian when you meet him again," said Angel.

White Heart gave him a small smile and a nod before entering the sky once more and flew north towards Planeptune and eventually Lowee. Angel then turned around and looked at the two women who were waiting for him, one was tall and had long blonde hair with bright blue eyes, she was wearing fancy green dress with white gloves and Angel's eyes kept getting diverted towards the enormous chest that would, at times, bounce whenever she happened to move her arms underneath it. When Angel finally moved his gaze away from the voluptuous chest he noticed the other woman had a sort of minty green hair with a black bow in it, a revealing dress and a soul-burning glare came from her eyes. Without even caring about the threatening glare Angel turned his attention to the voluptuous goddess before him.

"I take it you are Vert, Goddess of Leanbox?" Angel asked as he put his hands in his pockets. Normally people would consider it impolite and snobbish, but that was exactly Angel's character to a degree.

"Indeed I am, although I am called Green Heart in my HDD form," responded Vert with a mannered tone. "Welcome to Leanbox, one of the finest countries in Gamindustri. It is nice to see you face-to-face instead of looking at you through a computer monitor, and I must say, you are quite a handsome young man,"

This set off her companion who growled at Angel as her fists became too clenched together that Angel could swear that blood could be drawn at any point, at any rate the young man turned his attention to the growling woman. Angel couldn't decide whether this woman was obsessed with Vert, hated men, didn't like people in general or was just plain old crazy. It was clear that she didn't like Angel in the slightest.

"What's up with you?" Angel asked the angry woman with an uncaring tone.

The green haired woman snarled at Angel before raising a finger at him. "Stay away from my darling Vert, or else!"

Angel raised an eyebrow while Vert sighed, the busty goddess then looked at the snarling woman. "Chika, how many times do I have to say this? Be nice towards other people. Angel is our quest and as such I would like for you to try and get along with him."

"But you just said he was handsome! What happens if he does 'things' to you? I'd never forgive him, in fact I would hunt him to end of this world."

Vert chuckled at Chika. "Now now, be nice to him. This young man fought valiantly against one of the Dark Captains in Lowee, in fact I heard that Angel took down a killachine and many monsters of all varieties by himself. The least you can do is be nice to him during his visit."

Chika sighed in defeat before looking at Angel with a determined expression. "My name is Chika Hakozaki, Oracle of Leanbox and Vert's little sister."

"Um, Chika, you do realise you're not my sister, don't you?" Vert pointed out. "Nepgear is my little sister."

This statement crashed Chika's world and she fell to her knees, she then began to act dramatically by falling to the ground and appeared to be dying of a broken heart. "O woe is me! Vert, my darling Vert, your words have moved me to death's door, I don't think I can hold onto life for much longer."

"Good riddance then, I doubt anyone would miss you," Angel said casually.

This only caused Chika to continue her act even more dramatically, this time she pretended to have a heart attack and gasp for air. Angel looked at Vert in confusion at the whole scene playing before them. "Um, is this normal?" Angel asked Vert while pointing at the overly dramatic Chika.

Vert nodded. "She's an expert in dramatic scenes, if there were to be a university of sorts that specialised in this field then I am sure that Chika would be the headmaster."

"So she's an expert in the art of bullshit? Seems like everyone I meet has something weird going on in their heads. What's the best way to deal with this?"

"Simple: ignore it and the problem will go away."

"By problem do you mean the terrible acting or the person?"

"The act of course. Chika isn't a bad person, she is merely… hmm, how to put it… clingy to people she likes."

Angel shook his head and sighed. "I think it's more than just 'liking' someone. Anyway, barring any interruptions from your mad Oracle, care to show me around your oversized Basilicom?"

Vert giggled and nodded. "Most certainly. Follow me, Angel, try to keep up."

Vert led Angel through the large glass doors and into the Basilicom, Chika quickly stopped her acting and ran after them. The first room that the group found themselves in was a large study-like room with two comfortable soft chairs, a large wooden table and a few paintings on the walls – it amazed and shocked Angel that most of the images were from BL games, he recognised it because someone during his time at school would usual play such games when they believed no one was looking. The floor had a dark brown carpet and the walls were a bright colour, surprisingly there was even a small bookshelf tucked away in one of the corners, Vert noticed Angel looking at it and chuckled as he looked back at her with a questioning expression.

"You didn't think that Blanc was the only one who read books, did you?" Vert pointed out. "I read occasionally when there isn't any work to do or if my games are being updated."

Angel picked up a few and examined the front covers, he looked more than confused as he glanced at Vert who continued to stare at him with a smile on her face. "But these are all yaoi manga, hardly worth reading in my opinion," said Angel as he put some of the BL manga back on the shelves. "Huh, what's this warning on the front of this one? 'Should not be read by anyone under eighteen years of age', I wonder why?"

Vert giggled while Chika stared at the young sadist as he opened the manga midway, his eyes shot open widely at what he was looking at, he quickly slammed the book and put it back on the shelf. Angel turned around and looked directly at Vert, many questions were in his mind and if someone was to summarise it in one big question it would be: what the hell?

"Why do you read this type of smut?" Angel asked the blonde goddess.

"Because I find it interesting," replied Vert. "Do you not find interesting in the very least?"

"Absolutely not, I doubt anyone would be ready for… for… oh god, that image has scarred me for life now. I only imagine it happening to the girl in that type of situation, but seeing it happen to a guy? Seriously?!" Angel shuddered at the thought as well as the image.

"Yes, that particular manga is one of the more graphical in my collection, I haven't read it for quite a while. You can borrow them whenever you like."

"Like hell I'll be borrowing them."

Vert chuckled once more before resuming the tour of the Basilicom from the very top level to the bottom level. On every level Angel noted that the walls were of a green colour, the floor was paved and coloured in a bright white as were the door, as far as Angel could tell there were no elevators and everything reminded him of a large mansion. There were several levels in the Basilicom that had different purposes, though most were empty rooms that were used for storage, Vert and Chika showed Angel the level where all the guests slept as well as Vert's and Chika's rooms. When the group entered Vert's room Angel was stunned at what was around him, there were piles upon piles of manga, anime and games stacked in corners and all over the floor, there were quite a few collectors items scattered on shelves and desks, several large screens took up most of the room on one of the walls and in front of it was a large desk with a keyboard and a smaller computer on it, several consoles were attached to all the machinery but were on the ground. Angel thought his room back on Earth was messy, but this was beyond what he had imagined a gamer girl's room to be like.

"I apologise for the mess, I'm afraid that I haven't found the time to clean up my room for your arrival," Vert apologised to Angel.

"It's alright, I'm used to this kind of mess anyway," responded Angel. "Back on Earth my room was always a mess, Brian would normally go off about it but I never bothered cleaning, had to level up my character."

Vert became interested when Angel mentioned that line. "Are you a gamer?" she asked him.

Angel had a twinkle of pride in his eyes as he looked at Vert. "Of course, I have trained myself to stay up for at least a week playing games non-stop, and I am very proud of myself."

"Well then, if that is the case then we must simply play one of my favourite MMORPGs of all time: Four Goddesses Online, I don't know if you will like it but it has a superb class and levelling system. Would you care to play a round or two?"

"I suppose I can give it a try."

Vert then grabbed a seat from the corner of the room near her oversized bed and set it next to her own luxurious seat, the bountiful goddess then beckoned Angel to sit on the chair as she sat in hers, the young man did this and was given a controller that reminded him of an Xbox controller back from Earth. As Vert set him up on one of the screens – as only two screens were now on – Chika voiced her opinion on the matter.

"Um, Vert, shouldn't we continue with the tour? And, personally, I don't like the idea of him being in here with you," said Chika.

"I'm sure Angel wouldn't mind, besides, this won't take long," replied Vert without taking her eyes of the screen.

Chika sighed in defeat and left the room, her head bowed down and her shoulders slummed forward. Vert and Angel took no notice of it however, instead Angel was mesmerised by the multiplayer game that Vert had introduced him to. He was looking at his designated screen and his gaze was stuck upon the character design screen, the young man had many choices as to what his character was to look like as well as the name. The young man entered the name 'angeldoesmc' as his character name and he made his character similar in looks to him, except the character was more well-built with the muscles, eventually he came across the class system, Angel made his character a warrior and the first weapon he chose was a two-handed sword, his character was wearing a bit of leather for armour and mostly wore medieval styled clothes. After accepting it the game dropped Angel's character into the virtual world of Four Goddesses Online. Just then Vert handed him a headset with a small microphone attached to the side, the symbol of Leanbox was inscribed on either side of the headset.

"You'll be needing this if you encounter other people online," explained Vert. "You can borrow it for the duration of your stay."

Angel accepted the headset and placed it over his ears and around the top of his head, now he felt like a true gamer once again. He picked up the controller again and begun to move his character around, the character 'angeldoesmc' was surrounded by a green field and spaced out trees, Angel then noticed another character moving nearer to him, when the new character arrived it turned out to be a character similar to Vert's HDD form. Clearly this was Vert.

"My my, a warrior then? I think you fit the role perfectly," said Vert.

"Thanks. So what are we going to do now?" asked Angel.

"Well, a raid will be occurring shortly in a dungeon not far from this spawn location, all the members of my guild who are currently online at the moment are hosting it, we will be attending it. But in order for you to join our raid you must be a par of the guild. I'm sending you an invite."

True to her word a message appeared on Angel's screen, he opened it and accepted the guild invite, much to Vert's happiness. "Excellent, now follow me, before we enter the dungeon and participate you must get some potions of healing, stamina and magicka."

As their characters walked towards the nearest town Angel took a moment to gaze at Vert's character, he had to say that her choice in outfits for her character was quite revealing, not that he minded it of course. The outfit was very similar to how Brian had described Vert's HDD form, from the clothes to the hair, eyes and even the breasts, it all looked like Green Heart. He glanced at Vert's breasts then back to her character's breasts, Vert's character had the bigger bosom of the two. Then a thought crept into his mind: who had the bigger breasts in HDD? Green Heart, Purple Heart, Black Heart or Iris Heart? White Heart wasn't on the list for obvious reasons. From what he had seen so far the sadist would have to say Iris Heart, but he was probably being biased as he thought Iris Heart was incredibly hot, his masochist side screamed that he would probably let her do anything to him. Angel started to loose concentration on the game and began to fantasise, that was the case until Vert interrupted his thoughts.

"Angel? Hello? Are you there?"

Angel shook his head to regain concentration and looked back at Vert. "Yeah, I'm fine."

Vert raised an eyebrow but decided to return to the game and lead Angel's character towards the nearest town. When they arrived Angel began to shop for potions and anything else he thought to be of use with the money that Vert gave him. Afterwards they arrived at the dungeon and participated with the guild in a full-scale raid, Angel had the time of his life fighting and slaying monsters left right and centre, he managed to level up his character several times which impressed Vert. After the raid was finished and the guild was getting ready to hold another raid – this time it involved a fortress – Vert muted her microphone and turned to look at Angel. The young man focused his attention towards the gamer goddess.

"I apologise for being curious, but how did you meet Brian?" Vert asked Angel, she was curious about how the two of them met one another, they hardly seemed like the usual pair of friends.

Angel sighed as he remembered the first time he met Brian, he looked straight at Vert and began to tell her the story. "I'll tell you, but it's pretty basic, nothing out of the ordinary."

* * *

 _The sun was out in the sky, the clouds were spaced apart and yet a cool wind blew through the air, below on the ground was a school completely filled with kids of all ages, heights, looks and high levels of retardation. It was a public school and at that moment it was break time, the students had around 20 to 30 minutes on a lunch break. Many of these students played a few rounds of basketball, all different types of football, cricket or plainly ran around like retards on fire. There were, however, a sect of students whom other kids had taken to calling 'The Outcasts', these people did not have friends and would always stay by themselves away from others, they would normally be bullied and have their lunch money stolen, this sort of behaviour gave the school a bad reputation, but it was the only educational centre around for miles and miles._

 _And on this particular day there was a new student, a very odd one at that, but the school was littered with all manner of deranged idiots, muscle boys, flirty girls and even a person rumoured to have Stockholm Syndrome – but that was caused by a school play. This new kid, however, was different than the others: he was a sadist with a masochistic side to him. The sadistic vibe he gave his fellow students made them afraid of him, not that the new student ever cared, whenever people managed to gather the courage to speak to him he would usually say something harsh and they would never talk to him again. The new student wouldn't talk to anyone and was later classified as an 'Outcast', he avoided people and they would avoid him. At least that was the case._

 _The sadistic student was alone as usual during this certain lunch break, during this time he would normally be spying on the girls changing rooms or creating a little fort in the bushes and trees, he had even attempted to create a moat just in case he found lava, though it never occurred to him that lava would turn into a volcanic rock even if he did find any in his school. One day the young sadist was walking towards his fort's location when suddenly he spotted another student sitting in a tree, it was a young boy reading a book without a care in the world, he wasn't high up in the tree, instead he was sitting on a thick jagged branch and didn't pay any attention to anything around him. Filled with curiosity the young student walked up to the tree and looked up at him._

" _Hey, what're doing up there?" the sadist asked._

 _The young boy looked down and didn't appeared to be happy. "What do you want? Let me read in peace."_

" _This is my area, I'm building a fort here, so can you so kindly go away?"_

" _No."_

" _Well then, if that's the case then I'll force you to go away."_

 _The sadistic student climbed up the tree and shook the branch such an extent that the boy was sent hurdling to the ground, the two of them then came face-to-face on the ground as both stared each other down. Then the two pounced at each other swiftly, each one holding a thick branch as a weapon and using it as a sword, the book-reading student was surprised at the skill that the sadist had while the sadist himself was too surprised at the boy's skill. The young sadist managed to break branch after branch, leaving the book-reading boy without a weapon time and time again, but the sadistic student noticed something odd about his opponent, his glaring eyes had a fire to it, not literally of course. Without any spare branches the book-reading student growled, clenched his fists and charged straight into combat. For the rest of lunch break they fought as warriors against each other, neither backing down or showing mercy, when the bell rang the two boys were laying on the ground panting for air, both had lost to each other, yet strangely they didn't mind it._

 _The sadistic student panted for air before turning his head towards his left and looked at his former opponent. "That was… hmm, how to put it… not the most normal encounter," said the young sadist._

" _That makes two of use," came the response._

" _Hey, what's your name?"_

" _The name's Brian. Yours?"_

" _Angel. Good to meet you, Brian."_

" _Same here."_

 _For the first time in their lives the two young students had made a friend, rare for anyone considered an 'Outcast' in the school. The two of them were an odd bunch, but what would you expect from two eight year old children, especially since one of them was an Ancient yet didn't know it and the other was a sadistic masochist._

* * *

"And there you have it," Angel finished explaining to Vert.

Vert was quite interested in the short story that Angel had just told her, although Angel had told her that their first encounter was generic and basic, yet from what he told her that was far from the case as the two of them tried to bash each other's brains out with sticks and their fists after they met. It was an interesting story at least. Vert then began to wonder about Angel's parents, if the young man was a sadistic masochist – that was what she was told by Neptune – then what were his parents like?

"Sorry for the curiosity again, but who were your parents?" asked Vert. "With your, er… unique personality I cannot help but wonder what they must have been like."

"It's interesting, but as far as I can remember I never had a mother, guess she must've left when I was little or died. My father, on the other hand, was the one who got me into sword fighting when I was eight, but for some reason every time I try to remember him all I can see is a fog surrounding him, as if he's there but not there," replied Angel. He then turned his attention back to Four Goddesses Online, leaving Vert with many more questions, but she persuaded herself to not ask any more.

The two of them continued to play their online game for hours upon hours, yet time felt stagnated around them. Vert and Angel continued to play Four Goddesses Online, Angel managed to level up his character to level 42 and got his character to wear a suit of heavy armour with a better two-handed sword with a few enchantments, he and Vert completed raid after raid, and even defended a few fortresses against rival guilds. It wasn't until the two of them had slain a powerful dragon that Vert's door opened to reveal Chika and a newcomer that Angel didn't recognise, the Goddess of Leanbox turned away from her game to address the two of them.

"Oh, Chika and Cave, was there something you two needed?" Vert asked them.

Angel turned and looked at the small group that had entered Vert's room, he recognised Chika but the newcomer, Cave, he didn't recognise her. Cave appeared to be a tall woman with red hair in shoulder length pigtails, black ribbons held it together that were attached to a cap similar to a nurses hat and her eyes were a bright emerald green. She was wearing a somewhat revealing outfit that appeared to be a mixture of a nurse, maid, and magical girl uniform, it wad white with red lining and golden pieces, black parts covered her chest, legs, arms, and lower half, a red ribbon with a green piece in the centre was around her neck. Her gloves and boots were long with red lining near the end and black and gold parts were above them. The back of the dress was longer then the front and light orange colouring was inside it.

"Hello, I don't believe that we have met. I am Cave, part of the Security and Defence Organisation, the Leanbox Special Mission Department," Cave greeted Angel.

"I am Angel, just a dimension traveller," Angel greeted back in a monotone voice. "Vert, I had no idea you had a security department."

"It is mostly secret, only a few people in Leanbox and the other nations know about it," responded Vert. "How goes the assignment, Cave?"

"I've found little activity surrounding the Dark Captains, but I have noticed that large quantities of weapons and technology have gone missing from all over the country," reported Cave. "This hasn't happened since the Console War."

"I've also taken the liberty of checking the Shares of each nation, surprisingly the Shares of every nation has gone down slowly, but Lowee appears to be stagnate with the Share problem," reported Chika, surprisingly she was being serious and not trying to take Vert for herself, for now at least.

"Hmm, I'd say the reason that Lowee is stagnate with its Shares is because of the valiant efforts of Angel and Brian," explained Vert. "Since they saved Blanc, her sisters and their Oracle I can only presume that many people seem to have placed some trust in their leader's choice in befriending the two of them. Anyway, if you excuse me I have to return to playing my game with Angel."

Cave sighed and Chika face-palmed, the Oracle looked sternly at Vert. "Darling Vert, do you even know how long you and that young man have been playing Four Goddesses Online?" Chika asked Vert.

"Hmm, a few hours I reckon," replied Vert.

"Lady Vert, you and Angel have been playing that game for over a day and a half," Cave told her.

That was a surprise to both Vert and Angel, they swore that it had only been a few hours since they started playing Four Goddesses Online, but when they looked outside Vert's window they discovered that it was night and the mechanical calender proved that it had been a day and a half since they started playing the online game. Vert looked at Angel and seemed embarrassed.

"Oh dear, I'm sorry for taking up too much of your time," apologised Vert. "We'll have to continue this another time, since it's night already you might as well go to bed, we're going to have a whole day of gaming in store tomorrow."

"Uh, you do remember why he is here, don't you?" Cave asked Vert, she often got worried for her leader due to her priorities, which Cave viewed as skewered and weird at times.

"Why of course I do," replied Vert. "But until there is solid evidence that a Dark Captain is working somewhere in Leanbox we might as well take it easy."

As they bickered with each other Angel sighed, signed out of the game and left the room to find his accommodation, as he walked down the hallway he could still hear the others talking, most of it was about games while the rest was about finding one of the Dark Captains as quickly as possible before another incident similar to what happened in Lowee appears. Upon entering his room Angel glanced around the place, the walls were green and the ground had a brown carpet, the room itself was somewhat large, a king sized bed was in the left corner of the room while a desk was positioned near it. Angel didn't bother to get prepared to bed, instead he fell onto the bed and quickly went to sleep.

* * *

Day had broken out across Gamindustri and people began to wake up, one of them was Angel, but he found himself in a situation in which he could only have imagined. As he began to wake up he moved his arms to bring some life into them, however, his left arm had something heavy yet not so heavy up against it, he used his hand to pat and feel whatever was there and immediately he began to piece together what was up against him: another person. As his eyes got use to the sunlight creeping in through the window he then saw what was leaning against him: Plutia. The sleepy goddess had her head resting on his chest and an arm around his neck, she was asleep and lightly snoring in a cute way.

"What's she doing here?" Angel asked himself. "Meh, who cares, I've got a cute girl sleeping on me, that's good enough for me."

He probably would have gone back to sleep if it hadn't been for a certain loud goddess barging into his room. "Yo! You awake yet, Angie?" asked Neptune in a loud voice.

"Keep your damn voice down!" responded Angel. "I'm trying to get back to sleep."

Neptune noticed the position Angel was in and could only smirk, her troll face activated. "Ooooo, smooth moves my dear Angie. How did you managed to seduce Plutie?"

"She was like this when I woke up, I haven't seduced her… yet," replied Angel.

Yet eh? I don't think you'll have to go through much trouble with that."

Angel raised an eyebrow at Neptune's words before Plutia started to move around, groggy noises escaped from her as she opened her eyes to see Angel looking at her. "Hello Angie," Plutia greeted Angel. "Can I snooze for a bit longer? I'm so sleeeeepy..."

Pultia fell back to sleep, this time she wrapped her arms around his neck and brought her head closer to his until it was underneath is chin. Angel didn't mind it, despite usually being uncomfortable with these sorts of interactions with anyone. The young man patted the sleeping Plutia's head affectionately and appeared to be alright with his current situation.

"You feeling alright there?" Neptune asked Angel.

"Never better," replied Angel honestly. "How long will it take for her to wake up?"

"I don't know, an hour or five? Just enjoy the company."

"Already am."

Neptune giggled and closed Angel's bedroom door as silently as she could without waking Plutia up, leaving the young sadist to glance around the room before his eyes fell once more upon the goddess sleeping on him. He rubbed her head softly and began to ponder over a few thoughts. What does he feel towards Plutia? That was the first to run through his mind as he continued to watch the sleepy goddess quietly snore, the answer the that was simplified to yes, he has feelings towards her. But what were these feelings? Angel decided that he would find out eventually, and sooner than he thought.

Over an hour after Angel had woken up Plutia was starting to awaken once again, cute moans came from her as she yawned and her hold over Angel was released, she then rested herself on his chest and looked at him. "Hello, Angie, how are you?" asked Plutia.

"Better than I usually am," replied Angel as he patted Plutia, she smiled at him in response. "By the way, why were you in my room to begin with?"

Plutia started to blush and looked away from Angel's gaze for a moment before she regained her composure. "Me, Neppy and Neppy Jr came here early in the morning and I went to see you, but I found you asleep and since I was feeling sleeeeepy I just went to sleep right here."

"Why did you want to see me?"

This caused Plutia to turn bright red and she managed to force herself to look at Angel. "Well… there's a reason I came here, two actually. First, I got you something that's only found in my dimension." Plutia got herself off Angel, much to his disappointment, and the goddess then retrieved a small cardboard box from the ground and gave it to Angel. "You can open it later. The second reason is because, um… I want to tell you something."

Plutia was on her knees facing Angel directly towards the face, she was serious in what she was going to say to him. "Well, the truth is… I… I love you." Plutia sighed with relief. "There, I said it. I'm happy that I finally confessed."

Angel stared at Plutia, not once blinking as his concentration was towards her. Eventually, Angel swiftly moved his head forward and his lips made contact with Plutia's, the sudden kiss startled the sleepy goddess for a short moment before she started to return it. Their arms wrapped around each other and the moment seemed to last for uncountable hours, while in reality it had been only going on for at least two minutes. Angel and Plutia broke the kiss and stared at each other.

"Is that good enough for an answer?" Angel asked Plutia.

Plutia nodded with enthusiasm before giving a peck on his lips and snuggled onto his chest, Angel's start to the day was a memorable one. Angel looked at Plutia, who had already gone back into a peaceful sleep, and a bright smile started to grow across his face – the first time it had ever happened in his life.

 _I love you, Plutia, and I always will. Now that I think about it, what's in this box she gave me?_

With his free hand – one of his hands was wrapped around Plutia – he opened the small cardboard box and pulled out a strange looking stone, it was brightly coloured and gave off a peculiar glow, in the centre of it was something he had seen before: a power symbol. He had seen that type of symbol in the eyes of the Goddesses when they entered HDD, so he wondered why this stone had that carved into it.

"What the hell did Plutia give me?" Angel asked himself as the sleeping goddess got herself comfortable. He shrugged and decided to go back to sleep, despite it being around eight in the morning.

 **A/N: Finally got this chapter done, got a new computer so I've been playing around with it lately, and I'm sorry angeldoesmc, your OC did indeed view a yaoi lemon. I finally got the part where Angel and Plutia done and dusted, again I'm not good with writing romance so I apologise. And sorry but there's no lemons… yet, I could write a lemon scene or two if you readers so wish. The next chapter should be out by next week so I hope you look forward to it. Oh, merry Nepmas everyone and have a good day.**


	41. The Mage and the Tome

**Chapter 40: The Mage and the Tome**

The road to Planeptune was long and tiring for the top hat wearing man, he had walked through the snow clad fields and forests for hours on foot with speed as he was quick on his feet, and eventually when he had caught site of civilisation he sighed with relief, although it wasn't the city that he wanted to be in, in fact Victor was taking the journey at a leisurely pace and didn't reach Planeptune city until the second day. The sky was getting darker and the stars were beginning to appear as Victor walked down the streets of Planeptune, everything appeared to be peaceful and quiet, not many people were out and about, although the pubs and restaurants seemed to be filled with heaps of people. Victor passed a pub that housed several people inside and outside when he heard a small group of people talking about something, or rather someone, he knew about.

"Heard the news from Lowee? The guy who damaged our Goddess's Basilicom saved the Loweean CPUs yesterday," a guy informed the group he was with.

"What, that Shadow Walker person? Why is he saving people all of a sudden?" asked someone else.

"I don't know, nor do I care. He's a menace to all," said a third person.

"Well, he doesn't seem so bad, after all, he did save the CPUs of Lowee and I even heard that he spent a day with those Candidate twins at an amusement park. He can't be as bad as that little blonde girl makes him out to be," a fourth person informed the group.

A fifth person nodded their head in agreement, but this didn't go all down well with the others in the group, in their minds Brian the Shadow Walker was a violent man who caused destruction wherever he went. This was caused not only by his reckless actions during the fight at the Planeptune Basilicom but Abnes had been spreading rumours around all of Planeptune, and eventually Gamindustri as a whole, though Brian's actions during the incident in Lowee had helped sooth people's thoughts on him not everyone was convinced about the young man's good intentions. Victor decided to leave them and continue on his path down the street, he had heard that Brian wasn't very popular around Gamindustri but it seems that many people in Planeptune just outright despise his very presence on the continent.

"Poor guy, to try and do good but instead be given the hatred of everyone who happens to be around him," Victor murmured to himself.

As Victor turned a corner and arrived onto a different street he saw the Planeptune Basilicom not far in the distance, he hadn't been inside the Basilicom for a very long time, possibly ever since he was at least eighteen years old. The man hadn't seen or been in contact with Histore for four years so it was no wonder that the tome had considered him to be dead. "I think it's about time I pay her a visit, for old times sake," mumbled Victor with a small smile as he walked up the path towards the Basilicom.

As he approached the entrance he noticed that there were still signs of the scars that Brian had unwittingly wrought upon the local area, there were still a few cracks here and there but apart from that everything appeared to be normal. Once he reached the entrance he saw a few guards patrolling the area, it was a lot more than he had previously known since there were not many guards in the Basilicom, that was the case until the incident with Brian and the Dark Captains. When Victor got near the entrance he was stopped by a guard.

"I'm sorry, sir, but the Basilicom is closed for the night," the guard informed Victor. "Come back tomorrow if you have business with the CPU, the Candidate or the Oracle. Again, I'm sorry."

"Very well then, I won't argue about it," responded Victor. He then turned around and walked back down the path and back onto the streets. "Seems like I'll have to catch up with Lady Histoire tomorrow."

As he walked down a street in the city of Planeptune he came across a flower shop, despite it being late evening it was still open for the public. Victor walked into the shop and looked through the flowers that were available, today was an important day for him and he wanted to pay homage to it before the day ended. He picked up a few colourful flowers and the lady at the counter bundled them together neatly for him, Victor paid for it and left the shop for an area outside Planeptune City. As he strolled down the street with the bundle of flowers in his hands he suddenly thought of something.

 _Now that I think about it, Lady Histoire might be there._

As the sky darkened and the stars sparkled a single figure on a tome was floating in front of two gravestones, she had a bundle of flowers in her hands and a stern expression on her face. She was surrounded by small patches of trees and tall grass, the foundations of what was once a house was nearby, everything around the area was silent as death. Histoire floated down to the gravestones and placed the flowers ad their base, a solemn expression was on her face. It was the anniversary of the death of two adults whom she didn't know, but they were greatly important to a student and good friend of hers. She remembered the day she found out about them and their child, a person who she raised as if he was her own child.

"Victor, where are you?" Histore asked no one, her words drifted into the wind.

* * *

 _A peaceful day reigned in the city of Planpetune as people did their usual everyday business, in fact if anyone from outside Gamindustri came to the city and looked around they would have presumed that it was in a time of peace, but it wasn't. It was a time of war and death, a place where anything could happen. It was the time of the Console War. This war had been an ongoing event for at least a minimal of a hundred and eighty or ninety years or more, it was known as the longest war that had occurred in Gamindustri as far as recorded history was concerned, and it didn't appear to be slowing down._

 _Battles occurred throughout the land of Gamindustri, though they weren't the normal battles that people presume about during their history lessons at school, instead most of the time it was just the four Goddesses battling it out for the control of Share Energy, and thus invasions via armies were not completely necessary. Although there had been a few cases when armies from Lastation and Lowee invaded Planeptune and even an attempt by Lastation to invade Leanbox had occurred, fortunately for the people of Leanbox the sea proved to be more than just a barrier and it became a weapon during bad weather. Out of the four warring nations Planeptune was the more peaceful out of them all, even during a time of war Neptune was still her normal-self, although the CPU Candidates had been born a few years before they were still getting the hang of public and military situations while IF and Compa were only either babies or were still yet to be born so the pudding obsessed goddess was quite lonely and spent much of her time playing games._

 _This didn't endear her to the Oracle of Planeptune, Histoire. The Oracle was the one who had first instructed Neptune about the nature of a goddess once she had been born, although the results were far from what Histoire had expected once she stopped teaching Neptune, in fact the Goddess of Planeptune was the very opposite of what Histoire expected of her. The only time that Neptune was ever serious was when she transformed, but she didn't do much of that as she found it too tiring and only transformed when needed during a battle. Despite this the citizens of Planeptune respected their goddess and put their faith in her, there was something about her carefree nature that endeared her to the people. When Neptune transformed into Purple Heart then everyone knew that she would give it her all in the thickest of fights._

 _However, casualties did not only occur on the battlefield, it also occurred to those far from protection. The war had taken many people into the army and thus there were hardly any Guild members left to put down monster attacks, it was something that was happening all over the four nations. On this particular day an unfortunate family of three people, who were residing in a farmhouse west of Planeptune city, were attacked by a pack of overly large fernirs. The attack was brutal and devastating, in the first five minutes of the attack the father was killed and almost torn apart, then the mother set fire to the house in an attempt to burn the fernirs to death, this wasn't as successful as she had hoped. The only survivor was their young son, a boy at the age of six, he had been wandering around in a small patch of trees when the attack occurred and thus he survived the ordeal, although when he returned he did see his mother set fire to the house which managed to kill a few of the smaller fernirs. The boy, filled with tears, made his escape south into the heart of Virtua Forest to recuperate from what he had seen. To make matters worse for him it was going to be his birthday the following day._

 _The small boy sat against a tree shivering with fright, his hands were trembling and tears flowed down his face. "Why… why them?" he continued to ask himself for hours upon hours until darkness rose in the sky, yet he did not sleep._

 _When dawn appeared in the sky the young boy stood up and walked out of the forest and made his way towards what was left of his home. The young boy had short chrome coloured hair, orange eyes and wore a plain black T-shirt, grey shorts and white shoes. It was a very young Victor, and he was in a state of depression. For several hours he made the trip back to his burned down home, every step was painful for him as he remembered the smoke in the sky and the fire blazing brightly from the wooden walls and roof of the house, everything burnt before his very eyes, and he painfully remembered it._

 _When the young Victor did arrive at his destination he found it in a ruined state, the fire had completely burned the house to the ground, leaving only the foundations and charred objects. As he stumbled into the ruined mess of his former home the young boy came across something he didn't want to see: the charred bones and ashes of his mother. His father's remains were scattered all over the place in chunks of meat, bones and ashes, there were also the remains of the few fernirs who had been killed by the fire. The young Victor would have screamed yet no sound came out of his throat, he would have cried even more but there were no more tears to be shed, he had run out. Victor stood there, paralysed, and stared at the carnage before him, finally he could speak after what seemed like six ice ages._

" _W-W-What do I do now?" Victor asked himself as he continued to stare at the mess. "I… I guess the most logical thing to do would be to bury my parent's remains."_

 _As the young boy began to dig a hole with a handmade spade – which was made of sticks, rope and rocks – the sky began to get darker and the sun hide behind a large group of clouds, apart from that the weather didn't get any worse than that. After one hole was dug, quite slowly, Victor began on the second hole. When they were alive Victor's parents were amazed at how their son was highly intelligent for his very young age, at the age of four the young boy was reading one of the more advanced books from the Planeptune library and could even memorise several paragraphs from memory, he was polite and well mannered, which was a far cry from what usual six year olds were like._

" _Nearly done," mumbled Victor as he almost completed the second hole. "There, done it. Now then, the… remains."_

 _The first piece of human remains belonged to his father, it was a heavily scarred and bloodied arm, a part of the flesh had been almost ripped off and the young boy could see the muscle and blood veins sticking out. In response the boy vomited all over the ground, but he did gather up as much of his father as he could find, then came his mother, her charred remains were easier to handle but Victor vomited once more in response. Once the holes were filled up the young boy spent more than two hours moving large pieces of rock to be the headstones for the graves, when he finally managed to move them into position Victor stood in front of the fresh graves, his heart full of grief._

" _What do I do now?" Victor asked himself. "I have nowhere to call home, nowhere to go. Unless… I suppose the capital must have something, I've never been there before but I suppose it's better than… than… being here."_

 _Victor was finally able to cry once more, but his sobbing could hardly be heard due to the sound of thunder from the sky. They day had worn away during Victor's task and it was approaching night, though not many people without a clock would have noticed it. With the thoughts of Planeptune city flowing through his mind the young Victor tore himself away from the graves of his parents and struck out on his path to the capital, hoping that somewhere in the city he could find his future._

* * *

 _Histoire was floating down the street in Planeptune city and watched as people gave way to her, she was the Oracle of Planeptune and as such highly respected. Histoire had been the Oracle of the country of Planeptune for an untold number of centuries, ever since the nation had been founded by a CPU known as Uranus over six hundred years ago when Tari fell Histoire had become the Oracle of the new fledging nation, although Planeptune wasn't the only nation to be around. The oldest by far, apart from Tari, was Lowee, then there was Lastation which was founded nearly around the same time as Planeptune, Leanbox was a secretive nation and was only revealed to all of Gamindustri once the other three countries had set their roots, therefore no one really knew how old Leanbox was._

 _Despite being the Planeptunian Oracle and the all knowing tome of Gamindistri Histoire knew that there was plenty of information that was unknown to her, such information included how old Gamindustri was, who were the first settlers of people who inhabited the land, what was the first nation in Gamindustri that was ruled by a CPU, how old Histoire herself was and why she had been inactive for several ages of Gamindustri's history. Histoire only awoke a few years after Tari fell and as such often wondered what happened to her. But despite this lack of knowledge the all knowing tome didn't worry about it and instead helped Uranus in stabilising and ruling the nation of Planeptune, even after Uranus had passed away due to her injuries in a battle against an insane Lastation CPU, even the other CPUs were killed by the CPU of Lastation who was using Darkside as a means of destroying monsters._

 _Histoire came into her prime during the Interregnum that followed the passing of the four CPUs of Gamindustri, it was because of her that the four nations managed to survive the following decades before Neptune, Noire, Vert and Blanc were born. Although the harmony and age of peace that was to follow did not occur, in fact it was quite the opposite. The Console War broke out not long after they first met each other and all hell broke loose afterwards. Now, it had been nearly two centuries of fighting and the faith of the people had swayed from CPU to CPU, devastating families and destroying the environment. This occurred not only in battle but also away from it during monster attacks, the very recent ones had been occurring over the least few years and were beginning to get out of hand._

 _At any rate, Histoire made her way down the street while smiling and waving at nearby people who were happening to walk near her, the sky was bright and only a few clouds were visible for all to see. Where was she heading? The shopping mall. The reason? Supplies. Neptune had eaten all of the pudding once again whilst playing her games when she should have been signing documents or strengthening her nation's borders against any attacks, so Histoire had taken it upon herself to buy Neptune some more pudding as well as get some extra supplies that the Basilicom was running out in, and gather the latest gossip in case something slipped past her._

 _Once inside the mall the tome grabbed a basket and started to gather the supplies she needed. The mall was large and filled with dozens of stores for all sorts of needs, the current one the Oracle was in was a food store and she was in the pudding section. Yes, there was a pudding section, in fact it was a sacred law to have a pudding section in any food store. As Histoire gathered enough puddings to last for a month she overheard two people speaking to each other nearby, it took Histoire's interests due to it being rather sad._

" _That boy has been working his butt off this year," said one of the people, a short man with shaggy hair and a scruffy beard, he was standing next to a woman around his size, she appeared to be his wife. "I've seen him running around all day for the last several months delivering newspapers, magazines and other sorts of hand-to-hand delivery."_

 _The woman nodded her head in agreement. "Indeed, he's a busy young boy. Plus I have heard that he doesn't have a home, that's why that ramen store owner gives him free food every time he goes there to eat. A sad boy."_

" _I can't agree more, that boy must have gone through a tough life in order to get to this point."_

 _Histoire was more than interested in their conversation, she had heard of people going through tough stages in their lives but those were just adults, what they were talking about seemed to be a young boy trying to survive on the streets of Planeptune, and it seemed from what she heard that this had been going on for quite a while, a year at least. The tome felt rather bad and guilty about not knowing any of this before and felt determined to try and fix the problem, she was the Oracle after all and looking out for situations like that was what she was supposed to do when work was out of the way. The Oracle approached the two of them and began to talk to them._

" _Excuse me for the intrusion, but I could not help but overhear something about a young, homeless boy," said Histoire._

 _The man nodded. "Yep, the boy arrived in the city around a year ago and has been busy with work ever since. I only say he's homeless because no one has ever seen him sleep in a house, or a bed for that matter."_

 _Now Histoire felt really bad, she felt as if she could have prevented this from happening if only she had heard about it a year ago. Historie silently sighed and became determined to solve the issue once and for all. "Do you know where I could find this boy?" Histoire asked the couple._

" _Hmm, I think you might find him around the centre of the city at around this time cleaning the streets," replied the woman. "If you don't find him there then just look around that general area. He should be wearing a black shirt, grey shorts and white shoes, he also has orange eyes and chrome coloured hair."_

" _Thank you." Histoire then made her leave by exiting the shop after she had bought the supplies, her destination was the centre of Planeptune._

* * *

 _The floating tome of Planeptune arrived at the centre of the city as she had been informed, the central plaza was filled with different cafes, tables, chairs and people enjoying themselves to the fullest in sugary snacks and soda drinks. There were many types of people around the place and thus the large crowd made it hard for Histoire to find the young boy that she had been told about, although the colour of his hair would be a dead give-away in her search. So far no one matched the description that was given to the Oracle but she wasn't about to give up hope, Histoire felt responsible for whatever happened to the young boy._

" _This will be more difficult than I first thought," groaned Histoire._

 _After ten minutes Histoire had failed in seeing any young boy that matched the description, just as she was about to turn around and return to the Basilicom someone ran down one of the streets and past her. The Oracle quickly looked around and noticed the odd coloured hair, it was the young boy that she was searching for. Before Histoire could say a word he had already ran past her and down through the plaza, from what Histoire could see the look on his face was grim and sad, the boy was also carrying two flowers in his hands. Filled with curiosity Histoire made her way to the small flower shop where he ran out from and entered the store to talk to the person at the counter._

" _Excuse me, but do you mind if I ask some questions about that young boy who was just here recently?" asked Histoire as she entered the store._

" _The chrome coloured hair boy? Okay then, what do you want to know?" responded the person behind the counter._

" _Do you know anything about the young boy?"_

" _Hmm, I don't really know much about him, but he's a regular customer here and is always buying two flowers once every two weeks. He's always looking sad and depressed every single time he has been here."_

" _Do you happen to know why he buys flowers?"_

" _At first he never said a word, but around a few months ago he finally mentioned something about family, so I've had a few ideas about it and I think either he's being silently friendly and buying flowers for someone special but is too nervous, or someone close to him has died and he's wallowing in pity. From the look on his face I'm betting on the second."_

 _Histoire sighed. "I see, so that would explain why he's always doing jobs all over the city, and why he has no home from what I've heard. Do you know where he goes with those flowers?"_

 _The person shook her head. "Afraid not, although, I have seen him running with flowers towards the outskirts of the city towards the west in a hurry. Maybe you can find him down there if you're lucky."_

 _Histoire nodded. "Alright then, I'll give that a try. Thank you for the advice." With that she left the flower shop and made her way to the western outskirts of Planeptune city._

* * *

 _The young Victor stood in front of the graves of his parents, fresh flowers were laid in front of the headstones and a grim expression was upon his face, his fists were clenched tightly and everything around him was silent. Time itself seemed to be standing still. "They were good people, I might never get over their deaths," mumbled Victor._

 _Silence reigned over the place once more as Victor stopped talking to himself, not even the sound of the wind had an effect on his hearing, the are felt as if it was truly cut off from the world. That would have continued to be the case if it hadn't been for a certain someone, they approached the young boy and sighed as they took a look at the sight before them. The boy turned around quickly and noticed the newcomer and wondered why no sound was heard from them, that was until he realised that the newcomer was floating on an open and bright book._

" _I see, so this is why you are who you are," said Histoire as she stared solemnly at the graves._

 _Victor calmed down a bit before talking to the tome. "Who… who are you?" he asked her._

" _I am Histoire, Oracle of Planeptune," replied the Oracle. "I heard a bit about you earlier today and I'm afraid that I couldn't help but get to the bottom of it, and now that I am here… I'm sorry for your loss."_

 _Victor looked away and his gaze fell upon the headstones of his parent's graves, a shadow formed over his eyes. "Don't be sorry for me, my dead parents need your apologies. It's because of this damn war that my parents are dead, it's because of the damn ruler that my parents are dead, it's your fault!" Victor turned around as he shouted, Histoire could see the untamed rage in his eyes and the visible tears flowing down his face. A few seconds later he calmed down and appeared to be utterly guilty at the outburst._

" _I-I-I'm sorry! I didn't mean to… *sigh*, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that," apologised Victor as he became depressed._

 _Histoire shook her head. "No, you're right, I could have done something about this before it even happened. I'm sorry for my failure," responded Histoire, she appeared to be down-in-the-dumps. "What's your name?"_

" _Victor, my name is Victor. Funny, you're the first person – er… tome… whatever – that I have talked in a proper conversation with."_

 _Histoire chuckled. "Maybe so. Although, I still feel responsible for not preventing this travesty from happening in the first place, I feel obliged to help you in some way."_

" _No no no, there's no need to do that." Victor, despite being so young at he age of seven, was still well mannered and had his own set of morals. Now that Victor had calmed down he felt that Histoire didn't owe him anything._

" _I insist, I just can't let a young boy live on the streets, it would not be right and it would also dampen the Goddess's reputation. Hmm, what's the best way to go around it? Hmm… ah, I know! What would you say if I was to raise you at the Basilicom?"_

 _Victor stared at Histoire in astonishment, he had not expected this sort of thing to be offered to him at all, especially from the Oracle of Planeptune. "I… I would be honoured. But wouldn't I get in the way with all the work you have to do?"_

" _Not at all, it's true that there are many things for me to do in terms of work with the war and other incidents occurring, but I'm sure that I can help raise you at the same time." Histoire had a smile on her face, she thought her suggestion would be good for the boy, true it would increase the Oracle's workload and thus her stress but she was willing to gamble with it. "What do you say?"_

 _Victor looked back at the graves of his parents before looking back at Histoire, his expression was full of determination and happiness. "Alright, I accept your offer. Thank you, Lady Histoire."_

 _The tome chuckled with amusement. "Interesting, you have such good manners for someone so young. I think the two of us are going to get along for a long time."_

" _Yeah, I hope so as well." For the first time in around a year Victor had a bright smile on his face, this caused Histoire to smile too and pat the young boy's head affectionately. Their eleven years together had just begun._

* * *

Histoire remained silent as the night sky got darker due to the clouds, rendering the area a dank, cold and ghostly, not a place for the light hearted of people to be. When Histoire looked up at the clouds she soon saw them start to drift apart and the moonlight began to shine through the sky and onto the land. The Oracle sighed and chuckled.

"Good to know you're still able to have some control over the weather, Victor," said Histoire as she turned around, the tome was left staring at the man she had raised for eleven years and helped in his studies in the art of wind magic: Victor.

The Wind Mage smiled happily and walked over to Histoire, he had flowers in his hands and his fists her clenched not too tightly on them. He approached the raves and placed the flowers by the headstones before walking back to Histoire's side. "I'm glad you still keep this tradition going, I try to keep it alive despite being all over the place for the last four years." said Victor.

Histoire nodded. "Yes, I've been doing this for four years and not once have I ever seen you. Where were you? What have you been doing? And why didn't you ever message me for all that time?"

Victor stammered and appeared slightly frightened, being raised by an immortal Oracle had let him see her angry side, and it wasn't pretty. "W-W-Well, I-I've been travelling all o-over Gamindustri, increasing my knowledge on wind magic, battle strategies and all manner of things."

"I thought you have been dead for four years. FOUR LONG YEARS I HAVE THOUGHT THAT YOU HAD DIED IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE! I'VE ONLY HEARD THAT YOU WERE ALIVE JUST A FEW DAYS AGO WHEN ANGEL MENTIONED YOU! DO YOU REALISE HOW DISTRAUGHT I HAVE BEEN FOR ALL THESE YEARS?!"

Victor's face formed into a cringe expression and the yelling from Histoire sent him to the ground, he dropped his cane and his top hat almost fell off his head. He knew first hand what Histoire could do when she became angry, the unfortunate mage had been subjected to Histoire's temper whenever the Oracle has ever pissed off due to Victor stuffing something up or because of Neptune's idiocy. An interesting fact that Victor never met Neptune and Nepgear for at least nine years due to secrecy. As the floating tome neared his face with a stern and angry expression Victor backed up against a tree and was trapped by the angry Oracle, her face was close to his and her anger glared straight into his soul. Finally, her glare fell away and she sighed before latching her arms around his neck in a tight hug.

"I've missed you, Victor," mumbled Histoire as she hugged the wind mage.

"I've missed you too, Lady Histoire," responded Victor as he returned the hug. "I'm sorry for not messaging for four years, I am truly sorry. Just to let you know, for all those years I've been wandering around Gamindustri I never stopped thinking about you."

Histoire chuckled and looked straight at Victor. While patting his head "I accept your apology, you've just made my day. How about we return to the Basilicom and catch up four years worth of talking?"

"Yeah, let's do that." Victor smiled and nodded as he straightened his hat, he grabbed his cane and stood up, then he and Histoire walked – or floated in the tome's case – back towards the city and to the Basilicom. The Oracle was overly pleased to be alongside her former student once again and continued to smile as they walked side-by-side, Victor glanced back and made one last smile towards the graves. "Farewell, mother and father, see you again in two weeks."

* * *

 **A/N: I finally got this done and dusted, it took me a while to figure some parts out, especially the whole Victor and Histoire's past thing. I'm up for ideas. Just a heads up: the next chapter will take longer than usual to create so it'll take more than a week to type up. Sorry for a late New Years so have a happy New Year of nepping!**

 **PS: As soon as I was about to update this I saw the review from GodEater2FanBTW, I was just about to post the new chapter when you posted that you know. XD  
**


	42. Welcome to Lastation

**Chapter 41: Welcome to Lastation**

As Angel and Blanc slipped away from view Brian turned his gaze in front of him and sighed while he felt the wind blow against his face, his hat almost blew off his head and the young man had to hold onto it before it did that. Brian's carriers, Rom and Ram in HDD form, heard him sigh and the troublemaker of the group was the first to address the young Ancient.

"Are you alright, big brother?" Ram asked Brian.

"Yeah, I'm fine, just don't like flying," replied Brian as he looked up at his self declared younger sister.

"Oh really?" Ram had a cheeky grin on her face. "You sure it isn't because of Blanc?"

Brian raised an eyebrow at the troublemaking White Sister. "Believe what you want to believe, I won't stop you from having an imagination."

The troublemaker chuckled. "So then, speaking of Blanc, what do you think of her?"

Brian looked at Ram and had a questioning expression plastered over his face, he then sighed and looked away while a small blush appeared around his cheeks. "Well, um… I never told Blanc this but I think of her as someone special."

Ram giggled and tightened her grip on Brian's arm as a cheeky grin grew on her face, Rom remained silent but appeared to be quite happy to be with the Ancient and her twin sister. "Hey, Rom and Ram, what is Lastation like? I think I need some information before I get there, wouldn't want to be seen as lacking in knowledge," Brian asked the twins.

Rom was the first to answer the question. "Hmm, how to put it… industrial, it's a nice place but I prefer living in Lowee."

"I see, industrial hey? Not to my preference," mumbled Brian.

Silence reigned over the group as they flew over the land, Brian looked down and saw the snow clad grass fields along with the snowy trees and small hills, in the far distance the snow was beginning to clear away and the trees were now a different species. Despite his quirks Brian did enjoy looking at landscapes and would even admire the beauty that came from it, no one knew about this, not even his foster parents on Earth, or Blanc and Angel for that matter. Everything seemed so calm and soothed the young man's mind, despite that he still was really uncomfortable flying in the air.

In the distance the shapes of buildings started to take form and as the group got closer Brian started to see what seemed like a small city, the Ancient looked up at Rom with a questioning gaze. "Is that Lastation? Seems a bit small for it," Brian asked Rom.

Rom shook her head. "No, that's one of the smaller towns or cities that are outside the capital, every nation has at least two cities or towns and one capital," replied Rom.

"Huh, interesting."

As they flew over the settlement Brian noticed how industrial it appeared to be, factories were all over the place and lights covered the ground, people looked up and waved at the flying group. As the settlement disappeared from view Brian was left looking at grass fields populated by sparse trees and further to the east were signs of a mountain range, unlike the one in Planeptune which appeared to be covered in grass, moss and vines the mountain range in Lastation looked to be more desert-like, barely any grass and certainly no trees to be seen. It was an interesting sight. Further to the south the signs of civilisation came into view in the shape of large buildings and a thicker cloudy sky, as the young man looked down he could see a few abandoned factories that had been turned into ruins and the environment appeared to have reclaimed the land and the ruins.

The buildings came into range and the city of Lastation came into complete view, there were rows upon rows of factories with tall chimneys, fat chimneys or small chimneys, but all of them were spewing out smoke and steam into the air. Though that was only a few of the factories, many of them appeared to be more environmentally healthy which pleased Brian. Apart from the factories there were also some small parks filled with trees, benches and tables, people frolicked around the areas with smiles on their faces. Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves, but as the group drew closer to the centre of the city, where the Lastation Basilicom resided, some people looked up and noticed who the two Candidates were carrying, in a mere moment some faces turned from happiness to sour and disapproval.

"Looks like the people of Lastation aren't pleased to see me," mumbled Brian.

"They'll get over it, once you start running around helping people they'll begin to like you, you're awesome," responded Ram.

"You might think so, but it is hard to convince anyone these days. Those in Lowee are different to the people here, these people didn't see me, Angel, Victor and Wraith go out and rescue you two, Mina and Blanc."

"It'll be okay, I guarantee it."

Brian sighed and looked back towards their destination: the Basilicom. He didn't care what the people of Lastation thought of him, if anything it reminded him of the time he had spent in Planeptune and how almost everyone came to resent him, Brian did not mind that, in fact he welcomed it to an extent. After all, he did say 'let them hate me as long as they fear me'. However, that sort of philosophy had begun to be challenged ever since his final days in Lowee, the date and the rescue mission had some sort of effect and made him more kind-hearted towards people, something he had never expected. Now two parts of Brian's mind were torn between his hate and fear belief, one side believed in the hate and fear philosophy while the other side of his mind wanted to try and be somewhat kind-hearted towards people.

 _The hell is wrong with me? Ah well, if I hate someone I'll hate them, if I want to be kind to someone then I'll be kind to them, if I want to kill someone then I'll kill them too._

Finally the group flew around the Basilicom and landed on the balcony where Noire and Uni were waiting for them, Rom, Ram and Brian landed and the young man straightened his back and cracked his neck, he sighed in pleasure. "Ah, that hits the spot," moaned Brian.

Noire looked at Brian as if he was crazy, she then shook her head and sighed. "What a strange person. What have I gotten myself into?"

"Don't stress over his personality, Noire," said Uni I nan attempt to comfort her older sister. "Yes, he is a bit odd but I'm sure we can manage it."

Noire looked at her younger sister and a look of determination appeared on her face. "Agreed, let's see how well he does in Lastation."

As Noire and Uni turned their attention back to Brian they were in for a bit of a surprise, the two tsundere sisters had heard that Brian had gotten close to the Lowee sisters and thus they saw Rom and Ram hugging Brian tightly around his gut and chest, the young man appeared to be alright with it. Brian had a small smile on his face as he patted their heads gently. Rom's and Ram's heads were around Brian's lower chest and smiles were on their faces.

"Good luck, big brother," said Ram ash her hug tightened.

"Uh huh, good luck, big brother," Rom said in a quiet tone.

"I will, you two keep yourselves safe, look after Mina and Blanc for me," responded Brian as the three of them let go of each other.

Rom and Ram beamed a bright smile at Brian before flying into the air. "Don't worry about them, they'll be fine," Ram told Brian. "See you later, big brother," Rom and Ram parted with Brian as they flew into the air and away back to Lowee.

After the Candidate twins were out of sight Noire turned her attention back to Brian, as his back was turned to her the CPU of Lastation took a moment to look at his current attire and began to wonder about if the young man had already sworn his allegiance to Lowee. Apart from that his personality also seemed to have changed a bit, as far as Noire could remember during the time they spent together in Planeptune and the amount of things she had heard from video calls the CPU of Lastation had thought of Brian to be a harsh young man who hated just about everyone. Noire guessed that something happened in Lowee that reshaped his mind. The CPU walked next to Brian and looked at him.

"So, what did you think of Lowee?" Noire asked him.

"I liked it, if I was to retire somewhere then Lowee would be my first choice," replied Brian as he looked back at Noire.

"Is that so, huh? Guess your allegiance is towards that frozen country after all."

Brian raised an eyebrow at Noire after he processed that comment through his mind. "I haven't sworn allegiance to anyone. Just because I'm close to the CPUs of Lowee and also because I have a white trench coat with the symbol of Lowee on the back of it doesn't mean I have pledged my allegiance to Blanc, her sisters or anyone."

"Fine, whatever you say," sighed Noire as she turned around and began to walk back inside the Basilicom alongside Uni.

Brian followed after the black haired sisters quickly as they entered the Basilicom and the young man found himself in some sort of large office with black and white walls, a dark blue ground and a large desk covered with paper took up position around the centre of the room but further to the back. Noire looked at the amount of paperwork that had to be done and sighed deeply before straightening up and looked straight at Brian.

"Now then, to start off the day there will be a tour of the Basilicom followed by a lecture on what is expected of you and a complete discussion about the rules," said Noire with a determined look.

Brian looked at Noire as if she was crazy. "Huh? What's expected of me? Rules? Lectures?"

"Of course there will be rules and expectations. Didn't Blanc lay out anything of the sort when you were in Lowee?"

Brian shook his head. "All she said was for me and Angel to stay out of her and her sister's rooms until further notice."

Noire sighed and shook her head. "Why am I not surprised, that Blanc needs to have rules and expectations or else she'll never catch up to Lastaion's glory."

Brian crossed his arms and stared at Noire sternly. "That isn't completely true you know, every nation in Gamindustri has their own type of glory. Planeptune has the glory of absent-mindedness peace, Leanbox has the glory of all sorts of games, Lowee has the glory of silence and peace while Lsatation has the glory of industry and production. No nation is better than the other."

Noire raised an eyebrow at Brian and huffed in annoyance. "And how would you know anything about the glory of a nation? You're not a ruler of a country, you're just a traveller from another dimension. Leave that type of talking to those who know how to govern a country."

The young man growled at the CPU of Lastation and clenched his fists tightly. "Your arrogance knows no bounds, I hate it. Keep that attitude to yourself, that is my rule and expectation towards you."

The two of them stared, or glared, at each other sternly for what seemed like a while before Brian sighed and slummed forward. "Well whatever, let's get this tour and lectures over and done with."

Noire nodded before walking out into the hallway, Brian followed her with an exhausted expression on his face, Uni sighed and quickly followed the two of them as the tour began. "Guess his time here is going to be harder than I thought it would," mumbled Uni to herself.

The tour began with Noire showing Brian her office, the hallway and the elevator, after that the CPUs showed Brian around the other levels of the Basilicom including the medical facility, entertainment rooms, guest rooms, the dining room, their own separate rooms and finally the front entrance. All the way during the tour Brian noticed how the walls and floors were a dark colour, usual black, grey, dark blue and at times white. When Brian asked about where Kei was Uni replied that the Oracle of Lastation was out in a business meeting with some of the factories that she worked with. During the tour the young man had to listen to Noire boast about Lastation's achievements as well as its history, Uni would at time comment on certain subjects and make points which were either useful or were just ignored, a blow to her self-esteem. Any guard who happened to pass by appeared to be either uninterested in Brian or plainly disliked his presence, the young man didn't care in the end.

The only thing that Brian found interesting was the history of Lastation, although he never told Noire or Uni that during the tour. Apparently from what he was told Lastation was founded by a CPU known as Minerva, this CPU was born from the people's faith several years after Tari fell and later she founded the city of Lastation, it was said that Minerva had a keen interest in industry and thus that's how Lastation initially became a steam punk nation. There were also three other CPUs that appeared around the same time or just before the rise of Lastation, these CPUs were Uranus of Planeptune who had founded her nation a year before Minerva did, then there was Bellona of Lowee who founded her nation around the same time as Tari just fell or before that event occurred, finally there was Venus of Leanbox and the founding of her nation was heavily disputed. Noire then told Brian how these goddesses ruled over their countries for centuries before they vanished from history, at least that is what Histoire told them, it was something that Noire didn't really care about and she had come to the conclusion that they were dead and that Histoire wasn't going to tell everyone how it happened.

As the group marched down the hallways it dawned on Brian how the former CPUs names resembled the names of Roman deities, Minerva being the goddess of wisdom, crafts, medicine and commerce, Bellona being the goddess of war and Venus being the goddess of love. Uranus, on the other hand, was a male god of the sky in Greek mythology, he guessed that Planeptune goddesses had to have male god names, Neptune was a prime example of this as well. The name Neptune as far as Brian could remember from Roman history was the god of the sea, hardly a fitting image for the Neptune he knew in this dimension.

With his mind filled with history facts Brian wanted to know more, his thirst of historic knowledge taking over all precedents. Thus he continued to ask Noire about Gamindustri's history but all he got was vague answers, in fact he got better responses from Histoire despite the amount of holes in her knowledge. What confused the young man was how did Noire know all of this history, he had been under the presumption that the CPU of Lastation was a workaholic and thus didn't have time for filling up her mind with historic facts.

"Hey, Noire, how do you know all of this?" Brian asked Noire as they approached the front entrance.

"Simple: I know and can do everything and anything," replied Noire in a boastful tone as she used a hand to swish one of her twin tails. "They don't call me the 'Ideal Goddess" for nothing you know."

Brian stared blankly at her, never blinking and never uttering a single sound, that was until he opened his mouth and spoke. "Seriously? The 'Ideal Goddess'?"

"Don't believe me? I have the personality, the looks, I work to the bones, I have the right morals and dedication, I could go on but you would get bored."

"You left out your cosplaying hobby."

The tsundere CPU went red in the face and quickly denied what he had said. "C-C-C-Cosplay?! I-I-I-I don't d-d-do that, you must have me m-mistaken for somebody else!"

Uni face-palmed and sighed while Brian had an enormous grin on his face. "Oh, I am completely sure that you are a cosplayer, Neptune told me back in Planeptune during the sleepover."

"Neptune?! Why that greedy pudding snatching little… grrrrr! Of course she would be the one to tell you." Noire sighed in defeat and looked straight at Brian in embarrassment. "Yes, it's true, I do cosplay some of the time, it helps me get rid of stress. Don't judge me or anything!"

The young man looked quizzically at Noire. "Why would I judge you because of that? I don't see a problem with cosplaying, in fact I don't mind it at all."

As Uni smiled in relief Noire stared at Brian as if he had turned into a half goat half man. "You… you have no problem with it? Have you cosplayed before?"

Brian shook his head. "No, I haven't done that before, I've always been too shy to try it."

The CPU of Lastation scratched her chin and thought of something, she then giggled happily and smiled at the young man. "Well then, I'll introduce you to the art of cosplay." Then she blushed tried to cover up her happy moment. "B-B-But don't get me wrong, I'm only doing this for you! It isn't like I want to cosplay with someone because I happen to be lonely when I do it or anything!"

"Uh huh, whatever you say" mumbled Brian in response to the outburst.

Before Noire could begin to argue with him again a guard rushed down the corridor and straight towards Noire, he stopped next to her and appeared to be out of breath. "Lady Black Heart, we have a situation occurring," reported the guard as he gasped for air.

"What!? What's happening?" Noire demanded.

"Our network systems are being hacked, again," replied the guard. "Our network defences are proving useless against it this time."

Noire appeared to be on the verge of pure bloodthirsty rage as she clenched her fists and growled in response to the news. " _Screw. That. Bastard_! This is the fourth time already! That does it, I'm going to resolve this once and for all!"

The CPU then ran back through the corridor and the guard attempted to catch up with her, she never said farewell to either Brian or Uni. The young man looked at the Candidate in a questioning manner. "Is that normal?" he asked her.

"Well, ever since that perverted robot escaped prison a while ago our systems have been constantly hacked, it's been four times now. This isn't normal," replied Uni as she watched her older sister get into the elevator alongside the overly exhausted guard who was sweating all over the place, much to Noire's annoyance. "I think he was called Anonydeath last I checked, whenever we get a location on where he is after he's hacked us he always manages to escape."

"Have you managed to uncover the reason why this Anonydeath keeps hacking you lot?"

Uni shook her head. "Unfortunately no, it's just so random and annoying. Long before you showed up us CPUs went up against him when he first hacked Lastation's network, and he had the nerve to install hidden cameras all throughout Noire's room just so he could get some embarrassing pictures of her when she happened to be undressing or cosplaying. Then there was the incident with Eden, after that rumble he was captured, you know the rest."

Brian nodded thoughtfully, from what he heard Peashy had been the CPU of Eden, the country was located on a beach resort known as R-18 Island, the name sparked an interest in him. But what was most surprising was how the Sharicite of Eden was completely filled with Share Energy, apparently it didn't need faith at first, Brian theorised that it had something to do with Peashy's home dimension. But that then raised another question in his mind: how could Tari's Sharicite have been able to steal Share Energy from the other nation's Sharicites? Then came a new thought: why was he thinking of all this when the current problem was Anonydeath hacking the systems throughout Lastation, or just possibly the Basilicom itself? Brian shrugged off the thoughts just as Uni walked away from him. She then turned around to look at him.

"Are you hungry?" Uni asked Brian. "It's around lunch time and you should eat something."

"Alright then, I'll go scrounging through the kitchen if that's okay with you," replied Brian.

Uni stared at him and sighed. "Seriously? Scrounging? Are you a dog or something in disguise?"

The young man shook his head. "Sorry to disappoint you but I'm not, all I want to have is a peanut butter, ham and cheese sandwich."

The Candidate grimaced in response. "That doesn't sound tasty. You sure that your head is screwed on properly?"

"How rude." He then shrugged in an uncaring manner and walked down the corridor towards the elevator with Uni, the Candidate was going to check up on Noire while Brian went to create his favourite sandwich.

* * *

Anonydeath sat in a dusty dark blue chair in a dark light room, in front of him was a large and bright computer screen, on the screen were several windows that many found confusing, especially for the pink robot's companion. The flamboyant robot chuckled as he hacked his way into the Lastation Basilicom's network, he then giggled as he sent a message to Noire – which was more of a love letter to be honest – before leaning back into his chair and sighed in relief.

"This is fun," exclaimed Anonydeath as he put his arms behind his head. "Wouldn't you agree?"

His companion was a somewhat short man with short black hair and a goatee along with dark green eyes, he wore a brown leather jacket with a grey shirt underneath as well as black jeans and army boots. Underneath his jacket the shapes of grenades and what seemed like two pistols of some sort could be easily seen, this man was one of Lothar's Dark Followers, he happened to be an ex soldier and therefore a valuable ally to Lothar. The ex soldier had his reasons for joining the Dark Captains yet despite every other Dark Follower he didn't voice his reasons to them, except Lothar, who took an interest in his battle tactics. It turned out that the ex soldier had fought during the Console War and wasn't happy about the conclusion that occurred with the Friendship Treaty.

But there was one thing that puzzled him: why in the name of all that is holy did he get stuck watching over a pervert in a pink and purple robotic suit? Instead of this he could have been training alongside the other Dark Followers or scouting out places to stage battles in case it ever came to that, but no, he just had to be stuck with this pervert. True, Anonydeath did have his uses and thus was an important part of the team – if it was to be called that. But the ex soldier wondered why his comrade had strong feelings for the CPU of Lastation.

"I'm afraid that I cannot agree with you," replied the ex soldier. I just cannot see why we are doing this."

Anonydeath looked at him and chuckled. "It's all fun and games when you're with me, remember that."

"But this is the fourth time this week that you have hacked into the Basilicom's network, not to mention that every time you do this we're always in a different location. Apart from 'fun' is there any other reason behind this?"

Anonyydeath put a finger on his chin and thought for a moment, then after a few second he looked back at his companion and laughed. "No, not at all. I already told you, it's all fun and games!"

The ex soldier face-palmed and sighed in anger, he found Anonydeath to be too carefree and simply annoying for his liking. He then spun the robot's chair around, grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him violently. "I'm not here for fun and games! I'm here to do work, not to annoy the hell out of the Basilicom staff and the damn CPUs there! We were almost caught last time because you wanted to send a bloody love letter online to Black Heart, and I was forced to drag you away from the computer and just as we got out the stupid CPUs ransacked the place. You're lucky that we don't carry any information regarding Lothar and the others with us!"

"Please, calm down already, it's all good, they didn't catch us."

"Not yet, besides, Lothar is loosing his patience with your antics. I swear, you're a real pain in the ass." The ex soldier then let his grip on Annonydeath's shoulders loose before standing straight and sighed. "Just take this seriously from now on, will you?"

The pinkish robot looked at him as if he were mad. "Take this seriously? I have been taking it seriously, more than you know. You fail to realise that not only was I having some fun but I got something that will make that dear Lothar as happy as a baby with candy."

The ex soldier raised an eyebrow and wondered why Anonydeath worded is sentences weirdly sometimes. "So what have you found then?"

"This." Anonydeath then turned around back to the computer screen and clicked open a new window, there an image played for several seconds, the ex soldier watched it for a short while before looking back at his metal companion.

"Is that who I think it is?" he asked Anonydeath.

"It most certainly is," replied the metal pervert. "It's the Shadow Walker talking to my sweat Noire and her little sister."

"How did you manage to get this?"

"I hacked into their security system and got into the cameras, unfortunately there aren't any in Noire's room."

Ignoring what the last thing his comrade said the ex soldier looked rather pleased. "Well done, it seems that I underestimated you. Let's get this onto a portable flash drive and get the hell out of here, we don't want to be caught."

Anonydeath nodded and got to work right away while his comrade kept an eye out for anything flying their way, he was wary and ready for action yet he knew that a battle encounter with the Goddesses of Lastation wasn't the greatest idea. It didn't take long for Anonydeath to get the information into a flash drive, he then stood up and looked over at the ex soldier.

"Come on now, time to get going, they'll be on their way now," said Anonydeath.

The ex soldier nodded and quickly followed his companion out into the dark light hallway, although he often wondered if Annonydeath got any leg exercise due to him always floating around whenever they went somewhere. Eventually they made it outside and undercover around a few tall buildings just in time to see three objects in the sky, two were flying and both were carrying the third figure as they made their way hastily towards the small office-like building that Anonydeath and the ex soldier had been in. It took a few minutes for the ex soldier to convince Anonydeath to leave the scene without saying a farewell to Noire, although the black haired man was concerned about what his comrade had left behind as a goodbye.

* * *

Brian scrounged through the cupboards that were in the kitchen, he was looking for peanut butter as he had been making his special sandwich and the final ingredient was the peanut butter, but it was proving to be elusive. With a grunt he stood up straight and started to check the cupboards that were attached to the upper wall, but his luck ran dry as he found no peanut butter. The young man sighed in defeat and walked back to the kitchen bench where his sandwich was on a wooden board, the sandwich was made out of wholemeal bread, butter, ham and cheese.

"No peanut butter. What type of home, even a Basilicom, doesn't have peanut butter?" groaned Brian as he picked up his sandwich and walked over to the nearby dinner table.

The kitchen was a fairly big place and next to it was the dining area where the CPUs and their guests would eat breakfast, lunch and dinner, the dining area was a big room with dark coloured walls and a soft thin carpet. A large varnished wooden rectangular table took up space in the middle of the dining room, ten chair accompanied it, all of them were wood and varnished as well. Brian seated himself on one of these chair and happily munched away at his sandwich despite the lack of peanut butter, which was still depressing him. As he ate his small meal he began to think about a few things that were in his mind.

 _Hmm, I wonder if Noire has a library here like Blanc does, it would be nice to read some Lastation literature just as I read Lowee literature. I might have to ask Uni since I'm sure Noire would hate being bothered. Heh, what workaholic._

As soon as he finished eating his delicious sandwich the sounds of hurried footsteps could be heard coming from the corridor, it sounded as if whoever it was they were running in haste. Soon afterwards Uni burst forth into the dining room and looked straight at Brian. "Brian, get yourself ready," ordered Uni.

"Ready for what?" asked Brian as he stood up.

"Ready for combat, at least that's what Noire said," replied Uni. "We've tracked down the location of the hacker and Noire wants to get there as soon as possible, so get geared up."

"I'm already geared up, I have been ever since I got out of bed this morning."

Uni looked confused until she noticed the somewhat short sword strapped to the inside of this coat and two throwing knives that were on the leather belt that was strapped across his chest and back, the Candidate thought that the belt was for show. "Oh, then get a move on and get to the balcony."

"What about you?"

"I'm getting ready, just get to balcony and wait with Noire."

Brian nodded and quickly made his way up a level and into Noire's office where he saw the CPU of Lastation waiting impatiently on the balcony as she stared at the city below them, the young man opened the large glass door and walked onto the balcony. Noire turned around and looked at Brian, her foot was tapping the ground as a sign of her impatience and she also looked completely annoyed.

"You ready?" she asked him in a tone of an impatient person.

Brian nodded and together the two of them waited for Uni to arrive, when she did the two CPUs transformed into their HDD forms and floated into the air, Brian looked up at them and chuckled as he scratched the back of his head. "Um, I'll need some assistance, I can't fly," Brian pointed out.

Black Heart sighed and looked at Brian. "Fine then, I'll guess the two of us can help you out this time."

Together both Black Heart and Black Sister floated next to Brian and latched one of their arms underneath his arms and flew into the air, they were a bit fast and as such the young man felt a bit queasy at first. When he found the courage the young man looked down below him and saw the sight of Lastation in the prime of the afternoon, people walked here and there, cars moved up and down roads, factories produced their chosen products and everything seemed peaceful. Yet Brian knew that underneath all of it was a sinister darkness led by a Dark Captain, he didn't know if it was the Right Hand, Lothar or Kharzark but he knew that things were going to get bloody once the threat is brought to light.

Brian looked ahead and saw where they were heading for: an old office building that appeared to be abandoned as no cars or people in general were around it. The young man looked up at Black Heart with a question. "Noire, is it normal for buildings in Lastation to be abandoned?" he asked the CPU.

Black Heart shook her head. "No, not really. They only seem abandoned when most are actually for sale, you just happen to be confused."

The young man raised an eyebrow but kept silent, Black Sister chuckled at the two of them as the group continued to fly straight towards the building with hasty speed, they landed in front of the building and quickly ran inside. The inside of the building was darkly light but from what they could tell the walls were dark creamy colour while the floor appeared to be made of tiles. As they searched the office building they encountered many empty rooms, it appeared that everything had been cleared out earlier due to a sale as Black Heart had said, although a few rooms on the second floor still had some furniture such as tables, chairs and wooden boxes. Black Heart, Black Sister and Brian finally regrouped as they searched through the third floor but yet again found no signs of life, that was until they all stood in front of a slightly opened door, a dim light could be seen coming from something.

"Get ready," ordered Black Heart.

Black Sister nodded and summoned her giant blaster while Brian drew his sword, Black Heart then materialised her rapier, after a few seconds of waiting the three of them burst forth into the room and prepared to strike at their target, but it only took a very short moment to realise that Anonydeath had gotten away… again. Growling in frustration Black Heart sliced the empty chair in half and stamped her foot repeatedly on the ground, almost causing a small crater.

"Grrrr! He got away again! It's as if it's impossible to catch the slipper snake!" yelled Black Heart as she gripped her rapier tightly.

Brian considered walking over to the frustrated goddess and attempt to calm her down, but decided against it in fear of his life, for some reason it reminded him of an overly pissed off White Heart except Black Heart wasn't going out of her way to harm people or yell obscene and vulgar words at them. Black Sister seemed to have the same idea and instead walked over to the computer and checked to see what was on, there didn't appear to be anything regarding Annonydeath, his associates or anything else, except for one thing.

"Hey, Noire, there's a message addressed to you on this computer," Black Sister informed her older sibling.

Still visibly pissed off but now interested in what was addressed to her Black Heart approached the computer and clicked on the message, it opened up and immediately Black Heart wished she hadn't while Black Sister felt completely sorry for her older sister. It was a montage of pictures involving Noire cosplaying as many characters from certain popular animes as well as a variety of other things as well, such as a fairy, a bunny girl, a cat girl, a fox girl, a sexy Santa, a maid, a high school student and teacher, swimsuits and an Amazon warrior. The CPU of Lastation cried out in embarrassment and tried to close the message but failed to do so as it played over and over again with music and sound effects, finally Black Heart gave up and fell to her knees on the ground and wept loudly. Black Sister cringed and hid her gaze from the computer screen while Brian watched with keen interest.

"Interesting, utterly interesting," mumbled Brian as he continued to watch the picture montage of Noire's cosplay habit over and over again while rubbing his chin. "I should get a copy of this and send it to Neptune."

"Don't you dare! And stop watching it, you idiot!" yelled Black Heart as she channelled her rage into one almighty punch and sent her first straight into Brian's gut, sending the young man spiralling into the wall.

"Bloody tsunderes, they always act with violence," grumbled Brian as he slide down the wall and onto the ground.

Black Sister unplugged the computer from the wall socket and the light from the screen died away, with it the fabulous montage of Noire cosplaying as well, much to Brian's disappoint. Thus the search for Anonydeath ended in failure and humiliation. Although Brian had learned one thing: always carry a flash drive or a camera in case another embarrassing Noire cosplaying montage should ever reappear one day.

* * *

 **A/N: Got this chapter done more quickly than I thought, and I especially enjoyed the ending of this chapter, did you readers find in amusing too? Regardless, the next chapter will be out in a week or over so stay tuned. As always, if you have questions, ideas or anything else don't hesitate ask or tell me, I'm open to anything. Have a good day readers.**


	43. A Bloody Past

**Chapter 42: A Bloody Past**

It had been several days – three days in fact – since the incident involving the Noire Cosplay Montage, something that would embarrass the CPU to the end of her days – if she would ever die that is. Ever since then there hadn't been any further incidents with Annonydeath hacking the Basilicom's network or any messages sent to Noire for that matter, it was a cause for suspicion and the CPUs had been ever vigilant. During the day that followed the Noire Cosplay Montage Brian was forced to listen to Noire telling the young man about expectations and rules, the expectations were for Brian to work until he could no longer move and that he had to respect the people and CPUs of Lastation, the young man did not mind the latter but he openly disliked the first. The rules were fairly similar plus Brian was also expected to go out and look for any signs for the Dark Captain and his followers, and hopefully Annonydeath as well.

Thus for the last three days Brian had been going out into the public eye and patrolled the entire city, as he did so he decided to use his 'free time' to look at all the sights that the city had to offer, and he wasn't disappointed. If there was one ting he could give Lastation credit for it was how they put their heart and soul into everything they got, no matter how small the task, it kind of made Brian a bit guilty about the lazy attitude he had when he was younger. He admitted that Noire got one thing right during the tour, and that was that Lastation was the most productive nation in all of Gamindustri, the amount of hard work the citizens put into their jobs and lives was proof enough of this.

When Brian had been patrolling the streets of Lastation he had decided to go and work part time at the Guild to raise the amount of money he had, as well as gather any useful information along the way, although when Brian first entered the Guild he had been under a heavily watchful eye by many of the Guild members and staff. This was something that the young man had expected and because of this he had even come up with a hypothesis, this was that certain members of the Guild actually worked for whoever the Dark Captain in Lastation happened to be. This was only an idea of course but it did make Brian suspicious of anyone who was watching him for too long.

On the third day after his arrival in Lastation Brian had finished a quest that involved hunting down a few rogue robots in the south, after he got his reward – around 1000 credits – he decided to take a walk around the city for a change of pace. As the young man walked down the streets of Lastation he noticed how people would tend to ignore him, at least it wasn't as bad as the people in Planeptune he reasoned silently. The streets were filled with people walking, running, talking and whatnot, cars raced past and when Brian walked past a park filled with all manner of trees, bushes and people, he saw young children frolicking in the windy weather whilst their parents chatted amongst themselves. A very peaceful day in Lastation from the look of it. Away in the distance rows upon rows of factories were intermingled with all types of stores ranging from clothes, food and weapons. Brian tore himself away from the sight and continued to walk down the street back towards the Basilicom.

As Brian turned around a corner he felt rather hungry as his stomach grumbled, he looked up at the sky and concluded that it was somewhere around midday or just after it. "I guess I better find myself some place to eat," mumbled Brian as he resumed his walk.

His walk down the street led him to another street corner, to his left there stood what seemed like a cafes of sorts next to a small factory, the sign above the cafes read 'Passe', from what Brian could see through the large glass windows there weren't many people inside but the menu appeared to be filled with all sorts of items. With his interests opening up he decided to have lunch in Passe before returning to the Basilicom, at least it would show the people that he was interested in what they had to offer. As soon as he closed the glass door behind him the cool air hit him straight in the face and he felt rather comfortable in the new environment, in fact he welcomed the cool air as he had gotten so use to the climate in Lowee that he found any other weather that wasn't cold to be uncomfortable.

Passe was bigger in the inside, much bigger than Brian had originally thought it to be, there was a counter further towards the back with several tall stools were situated, closer to the windows around the entrance were seats that reminded Brian of a restaurant, they were tall and had a large varnished single wooden back to them that connected to the wall, there were around six in total along with tables. The walls were white and the seats were a darkish red, there were quite some bright colours around the place, above the counter was a large wooden board with a detailed list of what one could order along with the exact price. A young woman was behind the counter and didn't notice Brian until he approached her, she woke up from her dazed state and stared in shock at who the latest customer was.

"Uh… h-hello," the young woman greeted Brian. "W-What would you like to order?"

Brian sighed but in the end paid little heed to her nervous stammer, he couldn't blame her after all. "I'll have a ham and cheese sandwich, oh, and a bottle of water thanks," ordered Brian.

The woman nodded quickly before disappearing into the kitchens behind the counter and the process of sandwich creating began, meanwhile Brian stood still patiently. It didn't take long for the woman to return with his sandwich and a bottle of cold water. "That w-will be 75 credits, p-please," the woman informed Brian.

The young man paid for his small lunch and proceeded to walk towards the large windows to find a seat, as he looked around he noticed that he wasn't the only customer in Passe, it turned out that someone he recognised had also decided to have lunch as well. It was Kei, Oracle of Lastation, the silver haired tomboy-looking woman was sitting across from another person around her height, it was a blue haired girl with short hair and appeared to be wearing a jacket that was either a dark pink or an overly bright red, pockets adorned the sleeves close to the shoulders. The young man decided to pay them a visit and approached the table where the two of them were sitting at, when he got closer his presence was noted by the Oracle who turned her head to face him, a small smile appeared on her face.

"Ah, Brian, good to meet you," Kei greeted Brian politely. "I wasn't aware that you knew about Passe."

"I didn't, just found it today by chance," replied Brian. His attention was then stolen by the blue haired woman who stared at him with a bright smile.

"Hi there, you're that Shadow Walker everyone in Gamindustri has been talking about, right?" she asked him.

"I am yes. Are you going to throw abuse at me now?"

The woman looked confused before understanding his meaning. "O-Oh, sorry, I didn't want the conversation to go downhill like that." She then coughed into one of her hands before looking back up at him. "The name is Chian, I run the factory next door to Passe, this place is run by my family."

"Brian the Shadow Walker, as you already know. Nice to meet you."

Chian nodded at Brian while Kei managed to get both their attention by a simple cough. "Sorry to disrupt your merry greetings, but do you think you can help us out, Brian?" Kei asked him.

"It depends on what needs to be done," replied Brian. "By the way, if you're going to include me in this conversation do you mind if I can find somewhere to sit?"

Kei nodded and moved slightly aside towards the window to allow Brian some space to sit down, this he did and the young man took a large bite out of his sandwich before looking at Kei and Chian, his gaze swapping between the two every now and then. When his gaze fell upon Chian he did wonder about her fashion sense. She was wearing a dark pink or an overly bright red jacket that reached to her hips, a white scarf tied into a knot adorned her neck, her shirt was incredibly small and Brian wondered if it was just an average black sports bra that concealed her moderately small breasts, her black denim shorts reached above her knees and a belt was around her waist, she also wore fingerless gloves that had a light brown colour to it. Her light amber eyes stared deeply at him, Brian then realised that Chian was wearing a pair of welding goggles on her head, plus there was a small white thing on her left cheek, Brian reasoned to himself that Chian had a scratch or scar underneath it. She always had a smile on her face and never seemed to get upset over anything.

"So then, what's this I hear about needing my assistance?" Brian asked Kei and Chian.

"It is a simple job: search and record," replied Kei. "Chian can explain the details."

"Alright. A friend of mine was doing a monster extermination job a few days ago in an old factory outside of the city when she came across some old vault underneath the place, it was abandoned and felt otherworldly," Chian explained, her bright expression replaced with a serious one. "She said that the walls were concrete filled with cracks and looked to be falling apart, at the end of the tunnel my friend said there was a large door, next to it was this large square slab of concrete with a heavily faded symbol on it."

Brian was interested in what Chian told him, it wasn't everyday that a random person would stumble upon some long lost piece of history. "Did this friend of yours report this to the Guild?" Brian asked Chian.

The young woman shook her head. "No, she didn't think it was too important, but yesterday she went down there again during the evening and found that someone, or a small group of people, had been trying to bust their way through the door."

"But why? Shouldn't there be some sort of door handle or something?"

"For some reason no. Hold on, I think I have a photograph of it somewhere." Chian searched through her jacket for a few minutes to retrieve a photo while Brian finished off the last of his sandwich and began to drink some water, eventually the blunette reached into a pocket inside the jacket and took out a photograph of the door and its surrounding area. "There, take a look at it."

Both Brian and Kei took a long look at it and they both silently agreed that it strange, it was definitely not Lastation architecture, nor any type of architecture from the other nations. The tunnel was made of concrete with large cracks in the walls, ceiling and floor, the door too was made of concrete and several marks from sharp weapons and what appeared to be bullet blasts were all over the door, it did not have a door handle and there didn't appear to be any way to get through. To the right was the square concrete slab with the faded symbol, around the faded symbol was several circles that were carved into the slab. To Brian it reminded him of a smaller version of a blood seal that he saw in a certain RPG back from Earth.

"Would you know what this is, Brian?" Kei asked the Ancient.

Brian shrugged. "It kinda reminds me of a blood seal from an RPG, but apart from that I have no clue about the rest of it." He looked up at Chian and handed her the photo back. "So you want me to investigate this?"

Chian nodded. "It's underneath an old factory north-east of the city, the place should be abandoned so there probably wouldn't be any form of life around there, but keep your guard up. You'll find the entrance around pipeline fifty-three, it's next to a whole heap of vines that have taken over the area."

"Will there be some sort of reward?" Kei asked, her elbows were on the table and her hands were placed underneath her chin, Brian found her to be an all business-type person no matter the situation.

"I guess it'll depend on what is found down there, but I'll think of something for a reward," replied Chian.

"Seems interesting, thanks. I'll go check it out now." Brian then stood up and was about to walk off when he was stopped by Chian.

"Hey, wait up a sec," said Chian as she stood up. "Can you do me a small favour?"

"Uh… sure. What's this favour?"

"Just stay here a moment, I'll go fetch it." Chian then disappeared through a door that was behind the counter near the kitchen, from the look if it the door led straight into Chian's factory. Brian turned and looked at Kei to see if she knew what was going on, the Oracle shrugged and continued to drink her cup of tea. When Chian came back she was carrying a black sword with dark yellow lines running down the blade and hilt, the blade was slightly curved and altogether the sword measured around three to almost four feet tall.

"What is this?" asked Brian.

"It's a sword that I created not long ago, the sword is called 'Mecha Armas Sword'," replied Chian as she held the sword in her hands. "Its a prototype that I want you to try out, if you encounter any monsters along the way try this sword out and when you get back give me a full report.."

"Alright then, sounds good to me." Brian took the Armas Sword and grinned as he strapped it to his back. "Anything else?"

Chian shook her head. "No, not this time. Good luck out there."

Kei smiled at Brian after she finished drinking her tea. "Come back to Passe after you have searched through this vault before returning to the Basilicom, I am sure Lady Noire would be very interested in what is down there."

Brian nodded before walking away and out the door onto the streets of Lastation, leaving Chian and Kei by themselves in the restaurant. The two woman looked at each other and both had the same question in their minds: what will Brian find in the old vault if he manages to get through the inaccessible door?

* * *

The journey to the ruined factory was more quieter than Brian had first anticipated, there were hardly any monsters on the road and thus the Ancient had a hard time coming up with a report to deliver to Chian about the effectiveness of the Armas Sword. The only monsters were the occasional small fernir – or wolf, which was a separate breed to the normal large and powerful fernir – and during those times Brian used the Armas Sword to its full extent, the young man found the blade to be very impressive and deadly. The Armas Sword could cut through any sort of flesh, it could even cut through small boulders and tree trunks. Very effective and very deadly.

When Brian arrived on a dirt road leading north-east he found himself in a small green field surrounded by small plots of trees and grassy knolls, it was an open and unpopulated area which seemed surprising as it looked like a good place for farming. The further north-east the young man went the more trees and grassy knolls he came across, for some reason as he saw the old factory in the distance the feeling of cold death touched his heart and made him shiver. It was as if the place was haunted by the spirits of the dead, at least that was the feeling that he got. When Brian finally arrived outside the old factory's door he could see how badly ruined it was, the door had fallen off its hinges and laid half buried in the ground while vines had made their home around the baldy cracked and broken doorway. When Brian entered the abandoned factory there wasn't much to see as the environment had taken much of the land back, trees and bushes were growing out of the broken concrete ground and walls had fallen over as vines crept their way through the ruins, the old machinery that happened to still be there was rusted beyond repair and the pipelines that were still there were filled with vines and used by birds for nests. It appeared that the factory had been abandoned for centuries.

Brian progressed through the old ruined factory as he searched for pipeline fifty-three, his trip taking him to all corners of the ruins and encountering several species of birds who had made the place their home. Eventually the young man came across a large pipeline that had the number 'fifty-three' on it, though it was badly faded due to time, Brian followed it down a ruined corridor until he came across what looked like a large opening behind a broken wall, down below in the darkness appeared to be concrete walls filled with cracks, it seemed as if he had found the entrance to the vault. Brian climbed down the hole and into the vault corridor, as he walked down the corridor the young man could sense that the place was old, really old, as if the entire area was from a different era of history. But something didn't seem right.

"I can sense something, and it isn't good," Brian mumbled to himself. "Guess it must be my sixth sense. Strange, the aura I'm sensing kinda reminds of… that ruined village in North Virtua Forest. Whatever is hidden and locked away down here must have some sort of connection, either that or I'm over thinking things again."

It took a few minutes for Brian to reach the door that couldn't be opened, when he gazed at it the young man noticed that Chian was right, people had been at the concrete door and tried to smash their way in, whoever they were they must have been intrigued with the place. It also aroused some suspicion from the Ancient.

 _There's a possibility that they could come back at some point to get into the main part of the vault, I best keep my guard up, especially since I'm sure that they aren't friendly._

The young man looked over at the mysterious stone slab that was next to the door and looked for the heavily faded symbol, eventually he found it and ran his finger across it, that was when he got a bit of a shock. As he traced the symbol he discovered that it was a power symbol, the same type as those associated with Share Energy and the CPUs. It didn't make sense to Brian, his sensed that the place was connected to the ruined village but how did Share Energy tie in with it? At any rate it seemed that if one was to use Share Energy on the stone slab the door might open, this is what Brian did. He raised his right hand and placed it in the centre of the slab, then the raw power of the Share Energy flowed through is artificial arm and into the stone, causing it to light up in a bright blue colour as he retracted his hand away from it. Brian watched as the circles in the slab twisted around and finally the door slide open, the air that escaped the room behind the once closed door flew out and the young man could sense that no one had been inside for thousands of years.

Brian stepped into the room and gazed at what was stored away in the sealed off vault. Piles and piles of weapons, armour and what appeared to be guns were stockpiled all over the place, some of it was placed in steel crates that had not been affected by the flow of time. Others were neatly set on racks, the different sorts of armour that were in the vault were neatly stacked on racks, the different types of armour ranged from leather, chain mail, steel plated and padded. As Brian took a closer look at them all he noticed that every single weapon and piece of armour had battle scars on them, from deadly burns to shrapnel to pieces of armour being hacked away at by swords, spears and axes. This was no mere vault, this was an armoury for war, but used by whom? The young man then noticed what appeared to be graffiti on the wall, he approached it and gazed upon the words, it read 'For the glory of Gamindustri! - Death to the Ancients!'

 _So that is what this place is then: a war armoury that was used during the war against my race. So the 'G' symbol on those soldiers in my vision in Lowee did stand for 'Gamindustri', but still, who was leading them? Could it have something to do with the warlord that Wraith mentioned a while back? Or is it that strange woman who threw the spear at my young father? Or perhaps they are the same person? I wish I knew, then again, I don't want another stressful vision._

As Brian prepared to leave the vault and seal it once more he noticed something from the corner of his eye, a small weapon in a steel crate on the floor that was wedged between a steel sword and pieces of broken weaponry. As the young man gazed at it a sense of dread fell over him, it was the same feeling that he got when he stared at the mark in the stone wall back at the ruined village. With the utmost care Brian pulled the object out of the box and stared at it: it was a small curved dagger that looked very similar to the one in his visions, in fact it could be the very same one.

"The hell? Why is this here?" Brian asked himself as his hands trembled. Suddenly a sharp sting of pain erupted in his head, just like the time in the ruined village, the Ancient fell to his knees and his eyes burst bright with Share Energy, another vision was about to take place.

* * *

 _The spear neared the young boy, its direction was straight towards his head or possibly his neck, either way he was sure to be dead in a matter of seconds. As the young boy grimaced and prepared to meet his fate as he closed his eyes, yet it seemed that destiny had other plans for him. He opened his eyes after several seconds of waiting for his death to find a large wall made of stone right before him, the head of the spear was poking out of the stone and was not far from the boy's face. He looked over to his right and saw his friend, the young girl, panting for air as her hands were raised before her. She had been the one to summon the stone wall._

" _You… you can do it, you can use earth magic," the boy said in amazement. "Thanks for saving me."_

 _The young girl ran up to him and buried her face into his chest as tears flowed from her eyes, she didn't say anything as the two of them sat on the ground behind the stone wall, the boy put his arms around the girl and pulled her into a tight hug. His shirt became wet due to the tears but he didn't care, they were both very much alive. For now at least._

 _Not long afterwards another sonic blast occurred, this time it smashed the magical stone wall apart and sent the two children flying until they crashed in front of a burning house. The boy looked up at the source of the sonic blast and found that it came from the newcomer, the woman with the strange attire who was mostly obscured by the smoke and fire. She appeared to be holding something in her right hand, it was large, bulky and appeared to be round at one end. She appeared to be gazing straight at the two children, obviously the magical stone wall that the young girl summoned had piqued her interests, although probably not for good reasons._

 _At any rate, the display that the young girl had just done had inadvertently cast the centre of the battlefield around them, the Ancients were retreating towards the area while the enemy were pushing their advantage and slaughtered any Ancient unlucky to get in their way. The strange woman stared at the Ancient kids and the young boy could sense the hatred reeking from her, it made him shiver in fright and the young girl also seemed to be frightened. As the soldiers on both sides regrouped and charged at each other once more the already burning and ruined battlefield was covered with yet even more blood, pieces of flesh and broken weaponry. As the soldiers clashed and slaughtered one another with the blade, spear, gun and the inborn powers of the Ancients – a few of the Ancient warriors could use lightning, fire and ice, although not all Ancients could absorb certain powers – a person clad in what seemed like heavy armour made of steel approached the strange woman and stood next to her._

 _The newcomer was very tall and had longish hair, the man had a coat on his back that was strapped to his shoulders, his armour appeared to cover his entire body and some sort of helmet was strapped to his waist, a longsword was in his hands. He looked over at the woman and appeared to be asking her a question, she nodded and the tall man walking into the battlefield, then the young boy could see what he looked like. The tall man's cloak was black, the armour was grey plated steel and a steel helmet that covered the whole head was strapped to his waist, his eyes were red and hair was silver. The longsword was large and held firmly in two hands, altogether he was an opposing foe. The silver haired man swung his blade sideways and it sliced through the neck of an unfortunate Ancient, the head fell to the ground as did the lifeless corpse._

 _The old man ran over to the two children and pulled them to their feet. "Come on, we've got to get to the shrine right now!"_

 _The boy and girl nodded before getting to their feet and followed the old man down a street, the boy looked through the corner of his eyes and noticed the tall man watching them, but the boy chose to not worry about it and instead ran after his friend and the old man, he soon forgot about the tall man's piercing glare. It was something that he later came to regret, incredibly regret for as long as he could remember afterwards. As they ran down the street the boy and girl came to realise that this section of the village had not been effected by the marks of war, it was something of a relief for the two kids._

 _That was the case until an Ancient soldier was thrown across the ground and skidded until the corpse stopped in front of the small group, standing near them was the killer: the tall silver haired man, his sword dripped with blood. He stared sternly at the group and began to approach them slowly. "No one is to be left alive, no one. Children and old men are not an exception," said the tall man, his sword was raised above his head and was poised to strike down one of the kids or the old man._

" _W-W-Who is he?" the young boy asked the old man as they began to back away._

" _This is Agandur, the second in command of the enemy forces arrayed against use," replied the old man as he raised his staff in defence, his eyes flashed in an icy blue and an icy blue mist began to flow from his hands._

 _As Agandur swung his sword downward the old man raised his staff in front of the blade and ice formed around the staff, the sword struck against the ice covered staff and the blow was blocked, the tall red eyed man glared at the old man who smirked in response. The old man swung his staff to the left and lowered his right hand to the ground, an icy mist flowed from the palm of his hand and to the amazement of the young boy and girl ice quickly formed on the ground, Agandur took a wide step and ended up slipping, he fell onto his back and grunted._

" _Never underestimate an Ancient, no matter their age," the old man told Agandur as he approached the tall man. " **Ice Sword Excalibur!** "_

 _The old man held his right hand out and a sword made of ice appeared, it glowed an icy blue and a mist flowed from it, the old man quickly swung it down towards Agandur, but the tall man was quicker than the old man predicted. Agandur slipped past the ice sword's blow and got off the ice onto his feet. "Is that all you've got, old man?" taunted Agandur as his eyes flared red and a light red aura encased his body. "If so then this'll be easy. **Serpent Fang!** "_

 _Agandur rushed forward with reinvigorated energy, his sword became encased in a red energy and the tip of the weapon was poised directly at the old man, who put up a large thick wall made of ice in the way as a form of defence. As Agandur rushed forward in a speed almost unmatched due to the special attack a loud sonic blast came out of nowhere, the blast shattered the ice wall and the old man had little time to react as the special attack smashed into him, Agandur twirled the blade around and struck the old Ancient time and time again. Eventually Agandur stopped attacking and jumped back, he watched as the old man fell to the ground as his right arm and right leg were sliced off, blood gushed along the ground and the Ancient groaned in pain._

" _I'm… too old… for this," groaned the old man as he began to loose to much blood. Soon afterwards an icy mist flowed out of his wounds and ice replaced his former limbs. Meanwhile the two children hugged each other and stared at the scene before them, both were frightened out of their wits._

 _Standing nearby amidst a newly ruined house stood the woman who threw the spear, as the sunlight fell upon them the young boy could finally see what she looked like, and he found it to be completely weird. The woman wore a dress-like black shirt that was somewhat revealing with jagged points at the ends with white lining and two small orange triangles over her chest, a dark blue tie was around her neck and went down to the top of her skirt, the tie had an orange triangular clip on it which was situated above a small swirl mark. The skirt was small, black and it hardly covered anything as what seemed like dark blue panties could be seen, though the young boy if it was actually part of the tight black bodysuit that she appeared to be wearing, fingerless gloves adorned her hands, a black and dark blue sleeve was worn over her left arms, her hair was dark blue and her eyes were either a dark purple or dark magenta._

 _The woman looked over at Agandur and chuckled. "You're getting slow."_

" _Says you," retorted Agandur, he looked over at the two children before returning his gaze to the woman. "Are you sure you want them to die?"_

 _She nodded. "All Ancients are to be exterminated, they are a threat to our society and must die for the crimes they have committed."_

" _Whatever you say, Lady Kurome."_

 _The tall man then approached the two Ancient children with the intent to kill, that was until a blood-curdling cry approached them, it came from a bear of a man who was wearing chain mail armour covered in thick fur, the man also had long blonde hair and a scruffy beard. He was wielding a steel mace and a thick wooden shield with metal attachments, and the mighty weapon was aimed for Agandur's head. The silver haired man dodged the attack but was left vulnerable to a shield bash, which was exactly what happened next. As the two fought another contender charged into the thick of battle once more, it was the same red haired woman who wielded lightning, she summoned her lightning battleaxe and charged straight at the woman named Kurome._

 _Kurome dodged attack after attack, she then sidestepped the redhead and raised her weapon, a megaphone, at her attacker and shouted into it, sending a loud sonic boom that made the lightning woman's ears pop. Then the megaphone was brought down on her head, drawing blood from the wound that was inflicted. As that happened and while the two men fought it out the two children looked around and noticed that their chances of escape were very slim, they were with the old man as he attempted to recover from his deadly wounds and were trying to think of means to get the shrine with the village elder._

" _We've got to get to the shrine," the boy said._

" _But we can't leave the others behind," responded the girl. "I think we should stand and fight."_

 _She then stood up and an earth-like mist appeared in the palms of her hands, just as the lightning woman fell to the ground and Kurome advanced towards them. As she charged at the group the young girl quickly raised her hands and small boulders flew out of her hands and straight at the dark haired woman, the old man even threw spikes made of ice at her, but they failed to hit the target. The young girl smirked and she summoned a large stone wall in front of them, she then fell to her knees in exhaustion._

" _By the Divines I'm tired," moaned the young girl._

" _You've used up most of your strength," the old man informed her. "Although I must say, you've done a good job, I think she might have broken her nose or sprained one of her arms."_

 _Just then a sonic blast smashed the wall apart and sent the three of them flying in different directions, the blast came from Kurome who had a bloodied nose and a piercing glare. "You… you damn little brat," Kurome growled at the young girl. She then approached the girl and picked her up by the neck. "You die first, then the old man and finally the boy!"_

 _As the girl squirmed in Kurome's grip the old man appeared to be unconscious due to the impact of the blast and because of blood loss, but the young boy was fully awake and felt something he hadn't felt for a long time: hate. He got to his feet, gripped his curved dagger tightly, and ran towards Kurome. She didn't see him coming until the last minute, the dark haired woman tried to dodge the attack but failed and the curved dagger made its mark by slicing through the left sleeve and across the arm, blood flowed from the fresh wound. With absolute annoyance in her eyes she snarled, threw the girl to the ground and smashed her megaphone across his head, sending him to the ground with a bloody head. Kurome grabbed his dagger, gripped the young girl by the throat and plunged the dagger straight into her gut and upwards towards her heart._

" _Claudia!" yelled the young boy as he tried to get back onto his feet._

 _Just then lightning burst through the air and straight at Kurome, it hit the target and the dark haired woman was struck violently with the lightning, her grip on the young girl, called Claudia, was loosened and she dropped to the ground and into the boy's arms. The source of the lightning came from the redhead who had a bloodthirsty glare. Agandur, who had just killed the blonde haired man with a broken longsword, grabbed hold of Kurome and started to retreat._

" _Don't worry, Lady Kurome, I've got you," whispered Agandur. "Time to retreat and regroup."_

 _He then ran down the street with his leader in his arms, he disappeared around a corner and the clashing sounds of battle died away with the yelling of orders, it seemed as if the enemy was pulling back to regroup. The young boy looked at his friend and could only cry. "Don't die on me!" the boy cried._

 _The young girl – Claudia – grinned at him and patted his bloody cheek. "Don't worry about it, at least you're safe… mildly." She then coughed out some blood._

 _The red haired lightning woman walked over to them, her head bloodied and messy, her eyes filled with hate and lightning sparks. She picked up the old man and gently dragged him over to the two kids and took a look at Claudia, she sighed deeply and sadly. "It doesn't look good, I don't know if she will live," said the redhead._

 _The boy held his friend close to him and snarled viciously. "That Kurome woman… who or what is she?"_

 _The redhead looked over at the ruins of the village and sighed. "She is the first of her kind, the first of these so-called 'divines' to be made in flesh. She is a CPU, the first CPU, Bane of the Ancients."_

" _Curse the CPU, curse her and all those who come after!" yelled the boy for all to hear as tears ran down his cheeks. "I hate her! I HATE THEM ALL!"_

* * *

"GRRAAAAHHH!" yelled the boy as the vision came to a close, he dropped the curved dagger and let out a blood-curdling yell that echoed throughout the vault. He was twitching through his arms, legs and fingers. "Wh...What the hell was all that? That girl, my mother, did she just die or live? And Agandur the Dark Lord? Why was he there? And Kurome… tch, just saying her name fills me with hate. So, the first CPU eh? That does it, I'm going to research about them both!"

Brian stood up and almost fell over again, the trembling didn't stop as he walked out of the vault, leaving behind the curved dagger on the ground. The young man turned around and put the palm of his right hand against the stone slab, the Share Energy surged forth into the slab and the door closed once more. Then Brian left the vault tunnel and returned to the outside world. He breathed in and out, letting the fresh air go through his system, then he sensed something, or rather someone, nearby in the ruins of the factory. It soon went away and with a shrug Brian left the ruined factory, but he felt different.

"Kurome, Bane of the Ancients and Agandur, her right hand man. I wonder, could Agandur's revival be a mere step towards the direction of something much larger, and deadlier, than any of use anticipated?" Brian asked himself, his hands and finger continued to twitch.

* * *

The sun was still high in the sky and the people of Lastation continued to enjoy their day without end, but all was different whenever someone got near Brian the Shadow Walker, last of the Ancients, any person who got near him felt an unusual aura full of hate and anger. The people decided to stay away from him whenever possible, something wasn't right about him. The young man roamed down the streets of Lastation in search of one place: Passe. When he found the restaurant he opened the door and walked inside to find Chian by the counter, she appeared to be exhausted. After the door was closed she turned her head around and noticed that Brian had returned.

"Hey there! Did you complete the mission?" Chian asked him, then she felt something was off about him, he appeared to be grim and angry.

"Yeah, I did," was all he said before handing the Armas Sword back to her. "The sword works fine."

"Ah, good. Now then, what did you find down there?"

Brian opened his mouth and was about to reply before shutting it close, Chian raised an eyebrow and looked at him suspiciously. "Hmm? Did you find anything or not?" she asked again.

Finally Brian spoke, though he wasn't keen on it. "Well, I did find something. An old armoury from the Ancient Era filled with weapons and armour that have survived the flow of time."

Chian's face beamed up in surprise. "From the Ancient Era? Really? Wow, that's amazing! I definitely want to get my hands on those weapons and study them."

"I don't think you'll be able to do that, the door can only be opened with Share Energy. Besides, it's from the end of the Ancient Era and I believe it is best to leave it there." The young man began to leave the restaurant before Chian's voice stopped him.

"Wait up! What do you mean that it's better to leave it there?"

Brian stopped walking but didn't look back. "It's personal, that's all. I am the last of the Ancients so I'd prefer it if you, and everyone else, just leave the vault alone."

Chian stared at him, her eyes wide open and a surprised look on her face. She had heard from a rumour that someone calling themselves 'the last of the Ancients' was around Gamindustri somewhere, though she didn't guess that it would have been Brian. As Brian was just about to leave he was stopped again by Chian. "Hold on a moment, you need the reward. Here, take this." She then handed him another copy of the Mecha Armas Sword. "I had a copy laying around the factory, you can take it if you wish."

Brian held onto the sword and looked at it before nodding. "Thanks, Chian." He then left Passe and headed back towards the Basilicom where Noire, Uni and Kei were waiting for him, but his mind was bent to one new purpose: discovering the history behind Kurome, the first CPU, and her loyal lieutenant Agandur, the Dark Lord.

* * *

In another corner of the thousands of dimensions that floated around in space was a certain one that was more peculiar than others, it didn't seem like some natural world but instead felt rather empty, dead even. Everything, from the sky to the surrounding area, was all made up of dark blue energy, some of it solid and others not so solid. It wasn't natural, none of it. One particular part of this dimension was a whole palace-like complex which was made up of hallways with high walls, everything was filled with dark blue energy, it was all rather sinister.

In a large room, yet again made up of dark blue energy, sat an ominous figure upon a dark coloured throne, it appeared to be a woman and her head was bowed low yet life was visible, far in front of the throne was a large Sharicite-like object that glowed brightly, next to the throne was a table with a map of Gamindustri laying across it. Several sharp pins of different colours were stabbed in different places on the map that represented the events that had occurred over last month or two, a few pins with the colours of bright blue and black were marked in the country of Planeptune, a single white pin was stabbed in Lowee around the abandoned military facility, a grey pin was over on the Zune District while a red one was marked in Lastation. A dark blue pin and a bright blue pin were also on the map, the dark blue one on Haruno Village while the other was marked on the ruined Ancient village in North Virtua Forest.

The mysterious woman then picked up another bright blue pin and marked it over on the ruined factory where the hidden armoury vault was located, the woman smiled a wicked grin as she laid back. "Heh, foolish idiots, I can see all that occurs. Such is the power of the Heart Dimension," muttered the woman.

Her muttering soon turned into a chuckle, then an evil laugh took hold over her. The woman's laugh echoed down the hallways, yet no one was around to hear it. She finally stopped laughing and looked back at the map, the wicked grin refused to leave her face. "So then, Dark Captains of Agandur, you better hurry up in your mission to revive your fallen master before the last Ancient finds you, or before he finds me," mumbled the woman. "So say I, Kurome, the first CPU and Bane of the Ancients."

* * *

 **A/N: Like the plot twists I put in this chapter? I certainly did. What do you readers think is going to happen in the future? Perhaps a Megadimension arc, or even an edited version of it? I might know, then again I might not, we'll see. This chapter is a lot longer than I expected, but I don't mind and I hope you readers don't mind as well. On a side note I've also been creating a timeline for this, from the creation of the Hyperdimension to the events of The Rising Darkness, it'll have the rise and fall of the Ancients and some background history about them as well as the colonisation of Gamindustri, so look forward to that. Have a good day.**


	44. The Pits of Haruno

**Chapter 43: The Pits of Haruno**

As a new day dawned over Gamindustri a pair of dubious beings stalked the streets of Planeptune, fortunately for them no one was around due to it being very early in the morning – it was around four thirty to five in the morning at that moment. The dark alleyways gave them cover as they moved down street to street, if anyone was to have seen them they would be surprised at who they were, especially the smaller one of the group. The smaller one shivered in the cold wind and started to complain to the other person beside them.

"This wind is getting annoying for me, chu!" complained the small person – or creature.

"You sure have a lot of time complain about the weather when you could be instead getting some warmer clothing!" retorted the other figure as they continued to prowl their way through the darkened streets of the city, avoiding the sights of anyone who happened to be out and about.

"It would ruin my features, chu."

"Oh shut up, you stupid retarded rat."

The taller figure growled in annoyance and wondered how his life had gotten to this point. From a bloody life in another dimension to spying on the movements of other people in a place where everything is more advanced alongside a talking rat, things have been worse before but never this annoying. At any rate, the 'rat' was particularly pissed off. He crossed his arms and stood definitely in front of the taller man, to a kid he would have seemed almost terrifying but for this man he thought of it as merely annoying and it tested his patience.

"I am not a rat, chu! I'm a mouse, and my name is Warechu! You would do well to remember it," the rodent informed the man with utter defiance in his voice.

The man growled with impatience and irritation, he had had enough with the rodent and was fully prepared to slice him in so many pieces that the worms would not be able to feast on the remains. In fact the overly annoyed man would have already killed Warechu if it hadn't been for Arfoire who insisted on keeping him alive, when questioned as to why she replied with: 'Well someone has to keep my eggplant farm up and running when all of this is over'. The conversation ended there and nothing more was said afterwards regarding the so-called mouse, but the man did get the impression that Arfoire did want to kill the rodent in the past, and possibly in the present due to all the insults thrown at her by the rodent. These insults thrown at Arfoire by Warechu were usually about her age and appearance, the witch was called 'old' and 'hag', sometimes at the same time. The Right Hand and even Severia had thought that the insults had a grain of truth to them, nonetheless the rodent did still piss the man off.

"Whatever, just shut up or I'll feed you to the wolfs," the man warned Warechu, who shivered with fright in response.

"Alright then, chu," grumbled Warechu. "Whatever you say, Agandur's Right Hand."

The Right Hand nodded in triumph before the two of them continued to roam the streets from the darkness, no light ever fell upon the two of them as they crept from street to street, avoiding any gaze from anyone who happened to be out during the early hours of the morning. They continued to do this for quite some time before Warechu collapsed onto the ground in an empty alleyway, he fell face first onto the ground and appeared to be completely worn out. The Right Hand looked at the sight and felt no pity or remorse for the oversized rodent, in fact he welcomed the fact that Warechu was worn out and could go on no longer.

"Can we take a break, chu?" Warechu pleaded.

"No," replied the Right Hand without a second delay, he then continued to walk down the alleyway without hesitation and was about to leave Warechu by himself, that was going to be the case until the rodent started to whine in a loud noise for all to hear. Agandur's Right Hand rushed back to Warechu, picked him up and held a knife to his throat. "If you keep that up I'll slice your throat open here and now."

The rodent nodded quickly in response, he wasn't prepared to die without seeing Compa one last time. Without uttering a single noise the Right Hand placed Warechu on his left shoulder and resumed what he was originally going to do, he walked down the alleyway and back onto the street, still there were no signs of people wandering around, although there was the occasional house light in apartments and houses down side-streets. But no soul walked the streets, this made it only easier for the two villains to complete their mission, although if one was to ask both what their mission was they would have received two different answers.

Agandur's Right Hand was out and about in Planeptune city to scout out the area in case the CPUs and their friends had found their secret location, and he was also checking to see if there were any potential recruits to fill up the ranks of the Dark Followers. Warechu had a different agenda however, the rodent was looking for a certain person who he had very, very strong feelings for. The Right Hand was forced – much to his annoyance – to listen to Warechu explaining every detail about this busty nurse whom was called Compa, the rodent went into detail about her breasts, curves and sweet nature which made him irresistible towards her beautiful charms. It made the Right Hand role his eyes, although he processed Compa's features through his mind and he soon realised that he had met her before.

"I think I've met her before," the Right Hand told Warechu as they walked past a closed pudding store.

"Really? When and where, chu?" Warechu asked him.

"It was quite a while back, I believe it was around the time when Lothar and I first met the Shadow Walker in the southern region of Virtua Forest. I almost killed that bastard but your damn beloved nurse managed to keep his life force stable." Warechu then started to groan and was worried for his and Compa's safety, but he appeared to be safe due to what the Right Hand said next. "Although, we do need the Shadow Walker alive, so if I were a nice person I would have thanked that girl."

"Do you think we could convince her to join us, chu?"

"No, she's friends with the CPUs, that means she is our enemy."

"But still-"

"No! No means no! Are you tone deaf or something?!"

"Screw you, baldy."

"YOU WHAT?!" Agandur's Right Hand then grabbed Warechu by the neck and threw the so-called mouse to the ground and stomped on his back. "No one talks about that feature and gets away with it! Give me one good reason why I shouldn't use my booted foot to crush you into a flat piece of mush."

Warechu tried to respond to the threatening question but was not able to utter a single proper word, instead the rodent could only make strange grunting noises as he gasped for air while his back was being trodden on. "Hmm? I can't hear you. You saying something, rat?" the Right Hand demanded in his threatening tone as his foot was removed off Warechu's back.

"Y-Yeah, we're being watched, chu," replied the rodent as he gasped for air.

"What?"

The Right Hand looked around him and found a person – a woman in fact – who was watching the scene without blinking, she looked more than confused with the situation. The woman was not tall, she had long dark purple hair with a black and white dress with several layers and had light coloured lining, her coal coloured eyes stared sternly at Agandur's Right Hand and Warechu. To defuse the situation the Right Hand grabbed the oversized rodent and walked away awkwardly, leaving the woman behind as she continued to stare at them, when they eventually got away from her sight she shrugged and pulled a half empty bottle of alcohol out of her large breasts and began to drink away. It was clear that the woman was drunk and she had thought that what she saw was just a man or two beating up a black pillow.

As Agandur's Right Hand carried Warechu down the street and into the alleyway both of them felt a sense of awkwardness had fallen over them, they both looked at each other and sighed at the same time. "Well, that was more than awkward to say the least," mumbled the Right Hand.

"Yeah, that was weird, chu," commented Warechu.

"At any rate, I have had enough of scouting around this damn city, let's get back to the new hideout."

Warechu nodded and together the two of them walked down the streets as light began to reappear on the horizon, they had been out and about for much longer than they had realised, now it was going to take a long while to get back to their base of operations and they would have to do it during daylight. The two of them stuck in dark alleyways and passed street to street in a hurry, a car passed them as soon as they made their way into an alleyway, the city was starting to come to life. The Right Hand growled in irritation. "This isn't good, not good at all. We're going to be spotted at some point soon, and I do not want to be spotted by the CPUs if they still happen to be around here," grumbled the Right Hand.

"Yeah, we gotta get outta here," Warechu agreed without hesitation. "Do you have any ideas, chu?"

"Hmm… I think that there's a sewer entrance around here somewhere, we can go through there undetected."

Warechu did not like the sound if it and made his opinion very clear. "Sewers? Why do we have to go through that, chu?"

"What? You would be at home in the sewers, think of it as a return to your roots."

Warechu glared at Agandur's Right Hand before sighing in defeat. "Fine then, if it'll get us out of here quicker."

The Right Hand nodded and pulled out a crowbar out of his ragged cloak before walking towards a sewer entrance, he bent down and quickly made short work of the round metal obstruct, he then placed it beside the hole and beckoned the rodent to go down first. "Go on, you first," the Right Hand told Warechu.

"Why me first, chu?"

"Because if I fall down then I'll need something to cushion the fall."

Warechu looked annoyed and crossed his arms while giving the Right Hand a glaring stare. "No way, chu! I ain't going first now, you can."

Agandur's Right Hand growled, grabbed the rodent by the neck and threw him down into the sewers. Warechu screeched as he fell down, he banged against the steel ladder and parts of railings that sprawled down all the way to the bottom, a loud thud was heard as the rodent crashed to the ground and groaning could be heard a few seconds later. "I think I've found the bottom, chu," groaned Warechu in misery as his words echoed up to the Right Hands' ears.

With a nod the Right Hand climbed down the entrance as he attempted to but the cover back on, he climbed down carefully as he noticed that the steel ladder was covered in rust and did not seem too stable for any sort of activity. When he reached the bottom he found Warechu lying on his back with a deflated look across his face, the rodent groaned in agony and made no attempt to get back onto his feet, thus leaving the Right Hand to sigh in defeat as he picked the oversized mouse off the ground and carried him along in a not so friendly way by the hand. The rodent appeared to be unconscious at first which made the Right Hand feel more better, that was until Warechu's groans indicated that he was still very much awake.

"What a pity, I thought you were out cold," Agandur's Right Hand grumbled as he continued to walk past sewer water, the stench smelt noxious and the Right Hand felt as if his nostrils were going to be set on fire.

"Huh? You're a real pain, chu," grunted Warechu in annoyance.

"If you want to stay alive I suggest you keep those type of comments to yourself, or else."

Warechu grumbled but went along with the threat for his own safety, fortunately for him the Right Hand decided to be generous and allowed Warechu to sit on his right shoulder for the rest of the journey back to their new headquarters, but the trip had to be in silence. Eventually the silence that followed for many minutes became too unbearable for the rodent to bear, he then looked at the Right Hand's hooded head and wondered why he was bald. Obviously it was due to some sort of burning but the rodent wondered how the tall man managed to achieve getting burned on the head. As Warechu though of possible reasons, most of which were comical according to him, Agandur's Right Hand could hear the oversized rodent chuckling away to himself.

"What's so funny?" the Right Hand asked in a not so friendly way.

"Um… nothing," Warechu replied, realising what would happen if he told the man what he was thinking. Agandur's Right Hand glared at him for a few moments before sighing and continued on his merry way towards the sewer exits which led to the outskirts of the city, from there they would begin to walk towards their new headquarters.

 _No doubt the rat was thinking of my burn injuries, miserable bastard, I would have torn him apart already if I had the time to do so. It is bad enough that I can feel the marks on my head, not only that but everyone pointing it out only makes it worse, especially concerning Lothar – screw that bastard! I would have fried him to a crisp if he wasn't needed for collecting Share Energy and commanding Dark Followers. At least Severia knows when to keep her mouth shut._

* * *

 _The Battle of Red Valley, it was turning point in the war between the Empire, the various barbarian tribes and the Dark Lord's realm. After the destruction of the Imperial City by the Dark Lord's armies emperor-to-be Uriel and Wraith made their way east to the city of Torraine to gather imperial resistance and fight back against the invaders from the north, it was also hoped for Uriel to be crowned as emperor despite the lack of a throne and a crown. However, not everything went to plan. A few weeks after the Imperial City was destroyed and after Uriel was crowned the Empire began to fracture apart, the whole political system began to fall apart as governors and other magistrates began to break away from the Empire as they found Uriel unworthy to rule, as well as believing that they alone could defeat Agandur the Dark Lord._

 _These breakaway states were formed in the west and south, thus the east remained the only part of the fractured empire, the north was under the control of the Dark Lord. As for the reason why Uriel was found unworthy to rule an empire, well, he was found to be rather weird by various politicians, weird as Uriel had a rough and tough personality but in certain situations he acted rather childish, some say it was because of his youth. Wraith found him to be energetic, full of determination, anger, spirited and was a rather nice guy, if one was to look past is small bouts of childish behaviour. Because of this he wasn't taken seriously by conservative politicians who believed he lacked tact, although because of this Uriel did his best to do even better than anyone else._

 _Over a year had had passed since all these events played out, two and a half years had passed since the whole war began though. The fractured Empire was forced to fight for its very survival against a foe that had never been seen before or after, and the fate of the Empire was very, very grim indeed. Many of the states that had broken away were quickly conquered by the Dark Captains who led the Dark Lord's forces to war, even the Kingdom of Leone had suffered from constant raids and assaults, it had gotten so bad that the Leone king decided to break all his treaties with the Empire and put his support behind the Dark Lord. Now with the financial backing of the Kingdom of Leone who was going to stand in the way of the northern hordes?_

 _Despite the best efforts of Wraith and Uriel many parts of the Empire that was still under the Emperor's control still suffered as packs of barbarians, trolls, wolves and high pitched screeching monsters that roamed the sky made many raids and pillaged much of the land. The imperial war machine still had not recovered from the military disaster that occurred in the north with the barbarians and Lothar several years ago, now the Empire was paying the price for their arrogance. The only time the Empire had received a proper victory was when they defeated an enemy army outside the gates of Torraine, then they retook several key outposts and towns, but it still was not enough to prove that the Dark Lord and his armies could be defeated. Then came the Battle of Red Valley._

 _It wasn't always called Red Valley, in fact its original name was known as Green Valley due to the large number of trees, bushes, grassland and small hills covered in it. On one side of the valley laid a small mountain range covered in trees and grass while on the other there were hills, it was also the quickest route to the luxurious trade cities and town on the eastern coast, therefore it was an important strategic road. Early on during the first hundred years of the Empire's reign a small fort had been established to oversee the supply road in the Green Valley, but after the main highway had been built the Green Road (as it was called due to the valley) went out of use, but now that the Empire was under the threat of extinction the Green Road had become important once again for the Dark Lord's armies and the remaining forces of the Empire. Imperial scouts examined the area and reported that an enemy fort was nearby to the west of the valley, their destination was clear: the eastern coastline._

 _Uriel and Wraith gathered what soldiers they could and together they led the imperial army to Green Valley, there they set up an ambush in the mountainous region of the valley and the hills, Wraith led the cohorts in the mountainous region while Uriel led the cohorts in the hilly region. Hours passed and the soldiers sighed in relief, they believed that the enemy wasn't going to march through the valley after all, they were soon proven wrong. Rank upon rank of armoured soldiers, trolls, wolves and catapults, it appeared that the imperial legion was outnumbered. Wraith gritted his teeth and held his ghostblade firmly in front of him, the steel, leather and chain mail armoured soldiers had grim expressions as they watched their scaled armoured and pelt wearing foes march on by with numerous siege weapons and dangerous monsters._

" _Your highness, are you sure this is a good idea?" an imperial officer asked emperor Uriel as they remained undercover._

" _Of course, we may be outnumbered here but a surprise attack is the best course of action," responded Uriel as he tightened the grip on his sword. "After we kick their butts we can take a holiday by the beach, bathe in the warm waters, build sandcastles and all that stuff. Ah yes… pure greatness."_

" _Um… sir? You're acting up again."_

" _What? Oh, *cough*. Right then, sorry 'bout that."_

 _The officer nodded and looked back towards the flatlands in the valley before them, then they saw the leader of the army: Agandur's Right Hand. He was on a black horse with several plates of steel armour, he was wearing his leather armour and black cloak with the hood over his head, his dark yellow were prominent and many felt as if they pierced into their very souls. The Right Hand stopped his horse and gazed around, it seemed to many as if he was unsure about something, it only lasted a few seconds before he shrugged and resumed to trot his horse alongside the rest of his army. Wraith too noticed the Right Hand's behaviour and was glad that the enemy had not noticed the trap that they were walking into._

" _Sir, are we ready yet?" an officer asked Wraith in a hushed tone._

" _Almost… almost… NOW!" yelled Wraith as he lunged forward towards the enemy._

 _Imperial soldiers raised their bows and fired into the massed ranks of their foes as the infantry charged, the battlemages raised their palms and a mix of fireballs, ice spikes and lightning bolts came forth. The enemy army was caught off guard as Wraith and the imperial infantry tore themselves into their foe, limbs and heads were severed and blood splashed onto the ground or others who were nearby. It was then Uriel's turn to charge. With a loud cry the soldiers under Uriel's command surged forth as one large body and crashed into their enemy, they never stopped charging and kept killing all in their path._

 _Wraith swung his ghostblade across the exposed neck of an enemy soldier before it made its mark by cutting the head off a barbarian warrior, Wraith then raised his left hand towards an armoured troll – who was swinging its mace back and forth through the armoured imperial soldiers, killing many of them who got too close – and glared at it. " **Piercing Stalagmite!** " shouted Wraith as a large piece of sharp rock surged forth and exploded on impact when it hit the troll, then dozens of large rock spikes burst through the troll and almost tore the beast apart, it groaned in pain and died while its black blood littered the green ground._

 _Uriel slashed his blade across the arm of an enemy soldier, who appeared to be an officer, before kicking him to the ground, the emperor then repeatedly stabbed his opponent through his scale armoured chest and watched as the blood oozed out onto the bloodstained ground. The emperor then stood up and parried and oncoming mace before slicing off the arm and stabbed the soldier through the neck. The battle was becoming a bloody one indeed. Soldiers slaughtered each other, battlemages burned people alive or made their insides explode, trolls crushed anyone who got in their way whether it be friend or foe, wolves tore themselves into imperial soldiers and feasted on their corpses, the cavalry on both sides fought for supremacy in the rear while the Right Hand and Wraith squared off against each other._

 _The two men clashed blade against blade as they avoided the sharp and deadly weapons of nearby soldiers, both used their earth and lightning magic against one another in an attempt to strike a killer blow. " **Savage Lightning Strike!** " yelled the Right Hand, a large rune appeared above them and lightning strikes came forth, the struck the ground and created craters that littered the ground, some lightning strikes hit nearby soldiers and either killed them or incapacitated them. Wraith managed to avoid it._

" _ **Piercing Stalagmite!** " Wraith shouted as another large rock smashed next to the Right Hand and exploded, causing dozens of spikes to pierce through the ground and into anyone nearby. Agandur's Right Hand just managed to get out of the way but ended up in the direct path of a fireball, and his hood had fallen off his head, revealing his bright red hair. What happened next would be the cause of the Right Hand's war wound. The raging fireball landed on top of the Right Hand's head and quickly burned his red hair and the skin of his head, he screamed in agony and rolled all over the bloodied grass, eventually the fire died off but he was left with a scarred head, never again would he grow hair from there again._

 _With their commander down for the count the rest of the army began to falter as their morale plummeted, then the slaughter began. Soldier upon soldier began to ran for their lives as the imperials cut them down in cold blood, all the monster in the battle were killed and Uriel led several troops to capture the catapults and the supply wagons, Wraith led his troops into the bloody slaughter of the fleeing soldiers. No prisoners, no mercy, no remorse. The battle lasted for only a few short hours, the moping up operation took the rest of the day. Green Valley was covered in the blood of soldiers and creatures, thus earning it the name of Red Valley, and so the name of the battle came into being. Agandur's Right Hand managed to escape with a few of his soldiers, but the core of the Dark Lord's army had been utterly destroyed which left much of their new domains in the central lands of the fractured Empire vulnerable for Uriel and Wraith to retake. The tide was beginning to turn._

* * *

The light of the sun had spread out all across Gamindustri and people began to go about their daily business, meanwhile Agandur's Right Hand and Warechu made it out of the sewers of Planeptune and headed for their new base of operations. The old abandoned farmhouse was abandoned by the Right Hand, Severia and their followers due to recent sightings of reconnaissance missions by friends of the CPUs, these missions were done by IF and Compa whenever they found time to take a look around, one time Agandur's Right Hand saw them looking around the area near the farmhouse. But with a brand new headquarters the Dark Captains and their followers left the old farmhouse and established themselves in their new base.

Through the farm fields, grasslands, tree covered land and small mountain ranges the two of them travelled forth, neither stopping for rest or food despite the complaints from Warechu. Eventually the pair arrived at a hill that was situated next to Haruno Village, at the base of the hill there was a large hole mildly covered in boulders, this was the entrance to the caves underneath the hill and village. The Right Hand entered without a second delay while Warechu shivered at the entrance, whether it was because of the cold air that flowed from the caves or because it was something else entirely the rodent did not know. Eventually he gulped and ran after his tall and vicious companion.

The caves underneath Haruno were vast and wide, large pieces of rock dripped down from the ceiling and other came out of the ground, some others appeared in the walls, this lasted for what seemed like miles until they reached a certain point on the path through the cave system. The path diverged into two separate ways, one of the paths led even deeper into the ground, that was the path Agandur's Right Hand and Warechu took. They both travelled down the winding path deep into the bowls of the earth until sounds echoed from down the passage, it sounded like howls and snarling, Warechu shivered once more but this time he knew he was frightened. Eventually the path ended at a large opening which led into several open spaces, large pits were nearby where fernirs and, common wolves and other beasts were locked up to growl at each other, further down the steep path were even more pits, but these pits were different than the holding pens. These were breeding pits where the Right Hand would experiment on subjects they gathered from the denizen creatures of Gamindustri and humans from the world above, some unwilling while others volunteered due to their devotion and faith in the Dark Lord.

Despite none of the tests proving a success the Right Hand was determined to create soldiers of mass destruction, after all, the Dark Lord had done it before to overthrow the Empire from his dimension. However, it seemed that Agandur's Right Hand had arrived in time to see his first creation be a success. Severia was sitting on a seat nearby and was watching the Dark Followers down below in the test pit, they prodded the large slimy sacks with their oversized sticks and cleaned off some slime, then the two Dark Captains and an overly scared Warechu watched as what seemed like a gaping mouth with large teeth press against the sack from the inside and growled. The Right Hand smirked with delight.

"At last, it seems like my creations are coming to life," the Right Hand said with utter delight.

"Are you sure this is okay to do?" Severia asked him. "It doesn't seem ethical to me."

The Right Hand gazed at her with distaste. "That is because you don't have an open mind. Don't you remember the breeding pits of Dageroth? Do you not remember the great creations of the Dark Lord?"

Severia nodded slowly. "I do remember, but you seem to have forgotten how me and Kharzark never agreed with the idea of toying with human life to create such… monstrosities."

Agandur's Right Hand was about to make a comment about her words when suddenly the sack burst open and one of the Dark Followers was being strangled by a beast, everyone nearby had stopped working and watched the poor man be strangled in the hands of a monster of a beast. It stood seven feet tall when standing up straight, it had a large mane of grey fur stretching from its head to the back, sharp claws adorned the big furry hands, all over its body it was covered in grey fur and its eyes were glowing yellow, the creature appeared to resemble a werewolf if nothing else. It snapped the neck of the unfortunate Dark Follower and threw the corpse across the pit and into the wall, the Right Hand looked at the mess before turning his gaze fully at his masterpiece, a sense of pride flowed through him and he grinned at the beast standing before him. Warechu, on the other hand, could only shiver with fright and hid behind Severia, who was staring at the werewolf-like creature with disdain. She could only wonder what horrors awaited above when Agandur's Right Hand unleashed his creation into the world.

* * *

 **A/N: I apologise for this chapter being shorter than usual, but I wanted to do a chapter that helped explain what a few of the main villains were doing. Anyway, enjoy the chapters, leave a review as it does help me out, if you have suggestions then go ahead and inform me and have a great day.**


	45. Welcome Home

**Chapter 4** **4** **:** **Welcome Home**

Several days had passed since Plutia and Angel confessed to one another, things had been surprisingly normal between the two of them apart from the times when Angel, Plutia, Vert and Nepgear played games together (Neptune had been forced out of the group and often whined about being left out) there had been times when Plutia would fall asleep mid game and sleep on Angel as he made his character hack and slash through ranks of enemies that got too close. During those times Vert would chuckle while Neptune continued to wail about having no position in the four player games that everyone else played, meanwhile she was also betting with Vert about how long it would take for everyone to hear masochistic moans coming out of Angel's room. Nepgear, on the other hand, was happy with the relationship between Angel and Pultia, Chika was also happy as she now believed that there wasn't going to be any challenges towards her affection with Vert.

During the morning of this particular day when people began to rise from their beds and go to work a certain sadist was asleep in his bed, the warm glow of the sunlight beamed through his window he groaned in his sleep and tried to move around, but he was unable to move around. In Angel's dream he was impersonating one of his game characters, a heavily armoured warrior with a giant two-handed sword made up of a mysterious material, he marched around the fields in his minds and slashed his blade through any unfortunate creatures and people who got in his way. Some of these creatures resembled many monsters from Gamindustri, but the most common one was the dogoo. As Angel cut his way through a large group of dogoos another figure came out of nowhere, it was Plutia and she was immediately set upon by the perverted slimy creatures, they climbed all over her body and their slime ate away at her clothes, Angel could only stand there and he felt as imaginary nose bleed occur when he caught sight of his girlfriend with no clothes on and covered in bright blue slime. Then he felt unable to breathe and suddenly awoke.

"… Wh...What?" Angel mumbled as he woke up, but his words were muffled by something, it was soft and could possibly be big mounds of flesh from what Angel could tell.

Whatever they were Angel was having trouble breathing, he was able to move his arms about which was something of a relief, he then moved his hands to where his face was and tried to work out what was blocking his breathing. His hands connected to whatever was all over his face and began to feel his way around them. To his surprise they were squishy and felt rather good when he squeezed them in the palms of his hands, Angel then moved his hands around a bit and he swore he heard a lustful moan from somewhere very close by. Then something was wrapped around Angel and he was pushed further into the mounds of flesh over his face, then something else wrapped firmly around his legs and locked him into his current position. It took quite some effort for Angel to get his head into a position where he could actually see something but when he did the sadist got quite the view; he was staring at the large breasts of Iris Heart, Angel's hands were all over them and he noticed the lustful grin on her face while her arms and legs were wrapped around Angel's body and legs.

Despite the position he was in, Angel did not mind it one bit at all, in fact he rather liked it. The sadist moved one of his hands down Iris Heart's back and began to wonder if she was wearing anything at all, much to his disappoint she was wearing her HDD outfit, although the outfit was revealing enough as it is, especially around the butt, and Angel liked that a lot. As his hand moved down Iris Heart's back and was just about to touch her behind a yawn escaped her mouth and she started to wake up.

 _Damn it, just when I was about to feel that rump of hers. Maybe I'll get it next time._

Iris Heart's eyes opened and her pink eyes stared deeply and sternly directly at his purple eyes, a cheeky grin was on her face. "Like what your feeling down there?" Iris Heart asked him, her tone was full of teasing and lust.

Angel looked rather surprised as his hand froze at Iris Heart's words. "You knew I was doing that?"

"I could feel it in my sleep. Though I must say, trying to take advantage of my body while I was sleeping is very reckless. I should punish you for attempting such a thing."

The masochistic side of Angel would have beamed with joy and get ready for punishment if it had a personality of its own, so all that Angel could do was grin before gripping her butt firmly, he squeezed it and caused Iris Heart to moan despite her attempts not to. "Maybe I would like that," responded Angel to Iris Heart's comment.

A sadistic grin formed across Iris Heart's face and her eyes were full of lust, she then quickly closed the gap between their faces and their lips locked together all while Angel continued to caress her butt. The sadistic goddess then forced Angel's mouth open and stuck her tongue inside, he replied by wrapping his tongue around hers and a fight for dominance began in Angel's mouth. Eventually Iris Heart relented and withdrew, leaving a thin strand of saliva extending from both their lips, when Iris Heart's face drew further away the thin strand fell back onto Angel's face and the bed. The sadistic goddess then swung on top of Angel and looked down at him, the young man was given a good view of her voluptuous breasts and an urge to have them for himself began to overtake him. Angel raised his hands towards them but was stopped by Iris Heart who had a scolding expression.

"Did I say you could have them?" she asked in a dangerous tone, yet a playful look was on her face. "If you want them you'll have to beg. Now."

Angel lowered his hands and looked straight at Iris Heart's face full of determination. "O Madame Goddess of Beauty, please let me fondle your voluptuous tits while you do whatever you want with my body."

Iris Heart looked at him with a serious expression before grinning. "Is that so? I can do _anything_ to your body and get away with it? Now we're talking. Very well then, you may proceed."

With utter delight Angel quickly moved his hands onto Iris Heart's breasts and began to grope them with care, from the top to the sides he moved his hands around them and caused the goddess to moan. Feeling a bit daring Angel made swift work of the thin piece of clothing around Iris Heart's breasts and started to twist her already hard nipples, she let out a little cry of ecstasy before moving her left knee over across his crotch, she chuckled as her knee felt what was underneath. "I think you're getting a bit excited, my dear pet," said Iris Heart as she stared at Angel.

"I can help it, you're gorgeous," responded Angel as he continued to play with Iris Heart's breasts.

"Mmmm… I think I'm ready to take this one step further." Before Iris Heart could do that, or before Angel could start sucking away on his treat, the door opened and Nepgear stood in the doorway, she was oblivious to what was going on… at first.

"Are you two up yet?" Nepgear asked the two of them, she was still unaware of their current situation. "Breakfast is rea- Wh-wh-wh-wh-what?!" The CPU Candidate of Planeptune was staring at a half naked Iris Heart on top of Angel, his hands were on her breasts and it seemed like things were just about to get 'steamy'.

Iris Heart did not even looked fazed as he turned her gaze towards the Candidate, although Angel could tell that the goddess on top of him was getting pissed off. "Was there something you needed?"

Nepgear shook herself out of the state she was in and did her best not to look at the scene in front of her. "B-B-Breakfast is ready in the d-d-dining hall."

"Thanks, Neppy Jr. Now then, do you mind leaving us alone?"

Nepgear nodded quickly and closed the door as fast as she could, Angel and Iris Heart could hear her run off down the hallway until her footsteps could not be heard. Angel looked back at Iris Heart and both could tell that the mood had been ruined, with a defeated sigh Iris Heart got off Angel and sat on the bed while she put her top back on much to his disappoint. "Sorry, my dear Angie, but I think we'll have to resume this some other time I'm afraid."

Angel grumbled but nonetheless agreed, the mood had been ruined when Nepgear entered and saw them about to do the 'nasty' or as Brian would say 'dance with no pants', he watched as the sadistic goddess reverted back to human form and sighed. "Come on then, we better get down there and reassure Nepgear that nothing happened," Angel said to Plutia as he got off his bed. The two of them then left his room and headed down to the dining hall, all while Angel remained in his pyjamas.

* * *

Wraith walked through the wilderness of eastern Planeptune at a quickened pace, he had overslept and needed to make up the time by moving quicker than usual, he did not want to be late to Leanbox. He did not usually oversleep but after the chaos of the last several weeks he had been forced to sleep less and less, now it was taking its toll on him. Wraith had slept for an entire day and woke up only to find himself covered almost entirely in snow, that was enough of a shock for the mysterious man and ended up thrashing around to get out, much to his chagrin. Finally he overslept when he should have been getting ready to head for Leanbox, it was not a perfect day so far and he did not know how well the rest of the day would play out when he reached his destination, not to mention he was still rather sleepy and often tripped over any pieces of tree roots sticking out of the ground.

The area he was walking through was a small tree infested place next to a large green field, further away from the field were some farmlands and away to the south-west was a land filled with cherry blossoms, a rather nice place for a date he told himself. As he walked past a large tree he tripped over a tree root sticking out of the ground and fell face first onto the ground, an angry growl escaped from his mouth as he picked himself off the ground and back onto his feet.

"Bloody roots," grumbled Wraith as he kicked his new inanimate enemy.

As he did this he heard something or rather someone chuckle nearby, this caused the thousand year old man to stop and looked around for the source, eventually his eyes set upon someone he hadn't seen for a long, long time. Standing before him next to a tree was a woman with long flowing purple hair similar to Purple Heart, she wore a long purple dress that showed much of her breasts – which were big, they were slightly bigger than Purple Heart's bosom – and only some of it was hidden by the dress, it looked very similar to the attire that Purple Heart wore during the signing of the Friendship Treaty, except more elaborate and stylish as if it was from another era completely. Her eyes were dark Purple and a power symbol glowed in each eye, long gloves adorned her hands and stylish boots went along well with the dress. The woman appeared to be ghostlike due to her glowing and fading at times, she would often glow in a bright blue light. Silence reigned for what seemed like an eternity, until Wraith broke it.

"It has been a while, Uranus," said Wraith as he recovered his composure.

"It has been a long time, almost too long," responded Uranus as she walked over to Wraith. "Its been, hmm… how long, over three hundred years? Yes, over three hundred years since we last met."

"It may have been three hundred years for you, but it has been over two hundred for me."

"Ah yes, I forgot that time effects your dimension travelling method. Anyhow, how have you been for all these centuries?"

"I've been worse, then again I've also been better. How about you and the other three?"

Uranus sighed and a depressed look adorned her face. "It has been lonely, for all these years we have watched over our nations and bore witness to catastrophes, war and sadness. It has been tiring."

Wraith sat down on a nearby log and motioned for Uranus to sit next to him, this she did and the ghostly former Goddess of Planeptune sat next to Wraith. Any onlooker would have found it strange for a heavily covered man and the ghost of a former CPU to be conversing with one another, but there were none around to question it. "Care to share your thoughts?" Wraith asked Uranus.

"Alright then. I think us four are getting tired of watching over the nations we once ruled, so many things have occurred and we can't do anything about it."

"Why can't you do anything about it?"

"Minerva, Venus, Bellona and I swore that we would stay out of the affairs of the current age after our deaths, but it has been hard to keep that oath. At first it was easy but then came the Console War, we bore witness to our successors fighting it out against one another for two hundred years and for all that time we did our best to stay out of it. Now recent events have started to take its toll on us, especially Bellona who I believe is ready to break our oath at any time soon, she was most distraught during the incident in Lowee and felt powerless when she forced herself to not intervene. It's just like the time when that Arfoire woman almost killed our successors in that anti-crystal field."

Wraith nodded as if he understood. "Hmm, I can see how that's a problem."

"Have you ever been in that situation before?"

"I have ever since I became who I am, at least most of the time. There have been a few cases when I had to step in but that was because I had no choice."

Uranus nodded and looked away towards the sky, the clouds floated through the sky and flocks of birds made their journey from one point in Planeptune to the other, a sense of peace seemed to hover across them. "I think I know what you mean," sighed Uranus. "But we former CPUs cannot interfere with current events, no mater how bad they may be. However, I do fear that Bellona might make her move and break the oath she swore in death, when that happens I don't know what we will do."

Wraith chuckled and crossed his arms. "You know what she's like, she has always been impatient, warlike and not to mention completely cheeky, I think she might have a dirty mind because of that last trait; what a pervert she is. Speaking of which, how are the others?"

Uranus sighed, but this time it wasn't a depressed sigh nor any sort of unhappiness came from it, she chuckled and looked back at Wraith before answering. "Well, Venus has kept herself busy in Leanbox by sleeping most of the time, apart from that she just keeps to herself nowadays, you could say that she isn't taking things seriously. Minerva, on the other hand, is still wrecked with guilt for her and our deaths, now she wanders around Lastation and keeps a watchful eye on everything and everyone in that country, I spoke to her a day or two ago and she said that she saw that Shadow Walker in an underground vault, he almost spotted her too, but at least Minerva is taking things seriously. As for Bellona, well, I have told you much of what is going on with her, although she has been keeping a watchful eye on Blanc and Brian, she seems to have a soft spot for that Ancient."

Wraith chuckled and looked up at the sky. "Well then, if you see them tell them that I said hello, though I'll probably bump into Venus during my visit in Leanbox so I'll say hello to her in person."

Uranus smiled at Wraith before standing up. "Very well then, I won't take up more of your time. Do what you have to do in Leanbox, just be careful if you encounter those Dark Captains, just because you are immortal it does not mean that you cannot be struck down." The former CPU of Planeptune then began to disappear as her ghostlike form faded in the sunlight, soon Wraith was left by himself once again.

"Well, that was an encounter I never expected, I'm glad that Uranus remembers me at all," Wraith mumbled to himself as he stood up off the log and resumed his quick pace towards Leanbox, he only hoped that there was still some time left for what he wanted to do.

* * *

Breakfast in the Leanbox Basilicom dining hall was awkward, at least for three certain people. The dining hall was a very large room with white and green walls, the floor was made up of white tiles and nearby was the kitchen which itself was rather big, it even had a fridge filled with pudding due to the number of times Neptune visited. In the centre of the dining hall was a large varnished wooden table with many chairs, at the head of the table sat Vert while beside her was Chika, on the sides of the table sat the rest of the crew: Angel, Plutia, Neptune and Nepgear. Nepgear kept throwing glances at Plutia and Angel, but when they looked at the Candidate she would turn her gaze back to her food, it seemed that Nepgear was rather embarrassed about walking in on Angel and Plutia.

This didn't escape past Neptune who noticed the oddness between the three of them, as she was sitting next to her younger sister the pudding obsessed goddess turned over to Nepgear and a curious expression was on her face. "What's going on between you three? Is it some sort of conspiracy? Is there a plot afoot? Or maybe… ah! Something dirty happened, am I right?"

"Wh-What?! No! Nothing like that happened!" yelled Nepgear as she shook her hands in denial. Her raised voice startled everyone in the room, especially Vert.

"Oh dear, my sweet little sister, are you alright?" Vert asked Nepgear in a worried tone, Chika did not look too happy with the little sister remark and did her best not to cry in an outburst.

"Y-Yeah, I'm fine," replied Nepgear.

Vert raised an eyebrow at the remark while Neptune looked at Nepgear with a questioning look. "I don't think you're telling the whole truth," said Vert as she finished off her tea.

"Yeah! Come on, tell us!" Neptune demanded.

Angel sighed and looked at the two goddesses after he finished his fifth mug of coffee. "It's just embarrassing for her, that's all. She accidentally walked in on me changing and almost saw me naked," lied Angel, he then winked at Nepgear.

 _It ain't the truth, but I don't want Neptune and Vert trying to uncover what could evolve into a sex life for me and Plutia. Yes, it's better to keep that a secret, or else Neptune would be questioning me and Plutia every second._

Nonetheless, this lie still piqued Neptune's interests and she looked deviously at her younger sister, a cheeky grin spread across her face. "Oooo, so my beloved Jr is becoming a pervert, eh? Welcome to the club. So, what did you manage to see of his body?"

Nepgear blushed madly and once more shook her hands in denial, the Candidate believed that Angel's lie was doing more harm than good, at least for her anyway. She and Neptune looked over at Angel and saw him wink at the two of them, clearly he was having fun with the current situation. Perhaps it was his way of vengeance against the Planeptunian Candidate for walking on him and Plutia when they were about to reach a further step in their relationship.

"Hey, Angie, how much of your body did Nep Jr see?" Neptune inquired.

"All of it," responded Angel without hesitation. Nepgear did not like this one bit and hid under the table while Plutia looked at Angel with a stern expression.

"Angie, stop being mean to Neppy Jr," Plutia told Angel after she finished off her breakfast.

Angel glanced at Plutia for a short moment before sighing. "Alright then, you win. Sorry about that, Nepgear."

The Candidate poked her head out from under the table and sighed with relief. "Thank you for apologising, Angel," responded Nepgear as she got back into her seat, she also made a mental note to never enter Angel's room unless permission is given. Although Neptune and Vert thought Angel's joke to be funny.

As soon as everyone recovered from the event a maid who worked for Vert entered the dining hall and bowed to everyone. "Please excuse the intrusion but three guests have arrived unexpectedly," the maid informed Vert.

"Is that so? Then we must make them welcome," responded Vert as she stood up along with Chika.

To everyone's surprise the three guests turned out to be Compa, IF and Victor, apparently Compa wanted to see Neptune while IF and Victor had been tasked by Histoire to help out in Leanbox. Breakfast was soon over and the group resettled in the living room, minus Chika due to her duties as an Oracle and had to help oversee a few financial business problems, from what could be gathered it seemed that large amounts of weapons and money had been reported missing yet no signs of theft had been identified. Victor became convinced that it was the work of one of the Dark Captains, what made things even more suspicious was when signs of a witch wandering around the outskirts of Leanbox City had been reported, as Neptune said it sounded like a person similar to 'Arbore', though Nepgear quickly corrected it as 'Arfoire'.

As the group sat around in the large living room Vert turned on the TV and fired up her console she sat back on the couch and gave Nepgear, Plutia and Angel a controller, Neptune was once more disappointed and decided to do a very Chika thing to do: she pretended to have a heart attack. Eventually Nepgear relented and gave her older sister her remote, though Vert was sad to see her proclaimed 'younger sibling' leave the game, although the voluptuous goddess convinced Nepgear to stay with them for the duration of the game. So the Candidate sat between Vert and Neptune while Angel was sandwiched by Pulita on one side and Compa on the other, IF and Victor were by themselves on another couch but things seemed almost awkward between the two of them. Angel sensed this and as his character mowed his way through hordes of undead creatures the young sadist took the time to ask Compa about it.

"Hey, Compa, what's up with Victor and IF?" Angel asked the busty nurse while never taking his eyes off the screen.

"Oh nothing much, those two have a bit of history," replied Compa as she ate some pudding.

"I'm listening."

"Well, I suppose you'll hear about it from Neptune later so I can tell you. Victy was raised by Histoire ever since he was six, I'm not sure why but they never told us the reason, anyway Histoire managed to raise him in secret for seven years before Nep Nep and Nep Jr found out about it. By that time me and Iffy had become friends with them so when we met Victy we became his friends, at least I think so."

Angel managed to glance at Compa questioningly. "You think? So you're unsure about you and IF's status as his friends then?"

Compa nodded. "He was always a quiet person so we never got to really talk with him much, plus he did his best to avoid Nep Nep whenever possible. However, he did work part time at the Guild so he got to spend time with Iffy down there, those two always got on well, it was rather cute seeing how awkward they could be together."

Angel chuckled as his character aided Plutia's in battle. "I would never have guessed that IF had, or I guess has, a man in her life."

Compa giggled at the remark. "Nep Nep said the same thing when Iffy and Victy came back from a monster hunt once, both of them went red with embarrassment before Iffy chucked all of Nep Nep's pudding in the trash. I'm pretty sure she had feelings for him then, she still admires him for his ability to use wind magic and Iffy often said that she wanted to learn it from him, but suddenly four years ago he left the Basilicom and never said goodbye to anyone. Histy and Iffy were distraught and looked for him for a long time, but they found no trace of him. Then yesterday Histy gave us a call saying there was something we needed to see at the Basilicom, it turned out Victy had returned."

"How did that go?"

Compa looked at Angel and chuckled. "Well, lets say that Victy was glad that I had spare bandages with me."

"That bad huh?"

Compa nodded. "After Iffy punched Victy a few times she ran off, we didn't see her again till late last night. Victy was the one to find her, now things have been super awkward between them. Should we do something about it?"

Angel shook his head. "I think those two can sort it out themselves, I wouldn't want to get in the way."

As Angel continued to play the game IF and Victor sat silently by themselves, neither one attempted to start up a conversation with each other. They would throw the occasional glance at one another before both turned away and avoided eye contact. This lasted for quite some time before Victor was the one to break the silence. "Um, IF, I… er, I'm sorry."

IF glanced at Victor and sighed. "Yeah, I can tell you're sorry. Just don't leave without saying goodbye next time you start thinking of leaving us, I… I r-r-really m-missed you."

Victor could see IF blushing despite her best attempt to hide it, the young mage chuckled and looked over at the Guild agent. "Thank you for saying that, it means a lot to me. I missed you too, IF, I really mean it."

IF looked straight at Victor and yet again failed to hide the ever increasing tinges of red in her cheeks. "You… you really missed me?"

Victor nodded. "I did, I felt bad about not telling you, Histoire or anyone for all those years, I am sorry. Is there a way I can make it up to you?"

"Um… well, how about you teach me some wind magic, but only if you want to though."

Victor raised an eyebrow before letting out a chuckle. "How long have you been wanting to ask me that?"

The Guild agent looked away and began to pout. "Five or six years, its just the right time didn't present itself, that's all."

A smile grew on Victor's face as he looked at IF. "Alright then, I'll see what I can do."

IF looked at Victor with a surprised expression. "Really? You're going to teach me wind magic?"

The mage nodded but was not prepared for what happened next, IF beamed in happiness and threw herself at Victor in a tight hug, she snuggled against him and the mage broke out in a small smile as he patted the happy agent on the head. Then all of a sudden IF let go of the hug and mentally slapped herself as she looked at Victor in embarrassment. "S-S-S-Sorry! I didn't mean to get out of hand."

The young mage then attempted to calm her down. "Its alright, no harm down." He then smiled at her, to which a small smile crept over her face in response. Both failed to see everyone else in the room watching them, smiles and grins formed on their faces.

From there it seemed like the day would continue on smoothly, everything was patched up between IF and Victor while Vert, Angel, Plutia and Neptune continued to play their game as Nepgear and Compa made everyone snacks. Everything was peaceful yet eventful, until a solitary figure made his way up the walls of the Leanbox Basilicom and peered into the window where everyone else was. His gaze scanned the living room until his eyes fell upon Angel who was too interested in the game to care about someone peeking in.

Nepgear was the first to notice the new presence, she looked away from the TV screen and gazed around the room until her eyes fell upon the window, then she saw the hooded figure peering in. The Candidate cried out in fright and caught everyone's attention. "What's wrong?" Vert asked Nepgear.

Nepgear pointed towards the window and everyone then noticed the hooded man knocking on the glass window. "Is anyone going to open this up?" he asked. "I haven't got all bloody day."

Angel was the first to recognise who the hooded man was, the eyes gave him away. "Oh, hello Wraith, what're doing here?"

"Trying to get in, what does it look like?"

"Right, right, hang on a moment."

Angel motioned for Vert to help unlock and open the window to let Wraith in, together they unlatched the lock and the window flew open, letting Wraith into the building. "Thanks for that," Wraith thanked Angel and Vert.

"Um, Wraith, why did you come through the window?" Neptune asked him as she remained seated on the couch. "You could have come through the door you know."

"Like you're one to talk," Victor retorted, Neptune looked back at him with a sheepish expression while Wraith sighed.

"I would have gone through the door like a normal person, but Chika was hanging around there so I took a detour," Wraith replied to Neptune's question.

"Hmm? What's wrong with Chika?" Vert asked.

Wraith gave the voluptuous goddess a bewildered look. "You seriously can't see what's wrong with her? "That Oracle is obsessed with you and dislikes – or rather hates – when men get near you, and I fear I'm not an exception. Getting through the window was just a precaution. Anyway, I'm not here for long, just doing a bit of business."

"Would this be related to the business you said you had to take care of?" Victor asked.

Wraith nodded. "All I need is Angel, but I suppose the rest of you can come along."

Angel looked surprised and raised an eyebrow at the thousand year old man. "Me? What do you need me for?"

As Wraith was prepared to climb out the window he stopped and glanced back at the young sadist. "There's something I have to show you, I made a promise many years ago and I intend to keep it. I'm going on ahead, meet me outside the rice farm to the north of here." He then climbed out the window and disappeared, yet everyone was confused about the whole situation.

"Hold up, why near a rice field?" Angel asked rhetorically.

* * *

The trip to the designated meet up area took a bit longer than the group originally planned, Chika was infuriated when she heard that Wraith had managed to sneak into the Basilicom and back out without her knowledge, then she tried to convince Vert to take her along but to no avail. Then in the middle of the city Neptune ran into a pudding store and _had_ to try out the pudding there, so that took a while. More time was wasted when Victor came across a tea store and spent half an hour sampling the wide range of tea that the store had before buying a whole bag full of the stuff, it ended up with IF literally knocking sense into him. Then Vert disappeared for some time before Angel and Plutia found her in a manga store, she was reading some yaoi manga that were available and even read some of a yuri one as well before they dragged the goddess out. Everyone had to return to the Basilicom just to drop of the items they had bought.

Eventually it was half past four when they made it to the meet up area where they found Wraith sleeping underneath the branches of a tree, he seemed peaceful and hardly uttered a sound in his sleep, his arms were crossed and his legs were straight. The surrounding area was made up of green grass fields and sparse trees. Neptune looked at Wraith for a short time before a cheeky grin formed on her face, she then began to approach the former Oracle's sleeping body slowly.

"Nep Nep, what are you doing?" Compa asked.

Neptune looked back and everyone could see the playfulness expression that adorned her face. "I'm gonna take that scarf off his face."

"Why?" IF asked.

"Cause I wanna see what he really looks like. Don't any of you want to see as well?"

IF sighed and shook her head. "No going to happen, Neptune, we aren't interested in-"

"Well then, let's take the scarf off then," Vert interjected as she approached Wraith alongside Neptune. Together the two goddesses began to creep up on Wraith, when they were just about to take off his scarf the sleeping man quickly opened both of his eyes and stared at them sternly.

"You're late, all of you are bloody late," Wraith grumbled, he didn't seem to care that both Neptune and Vert were about to take off his scarf, instead he was more annoyed about their tardiness. "Well, better late than not showing up at all. Follow me."

Wraith headed down a dirt track leading to the rice fields with the group following him, everyone was interested in what Wraith was going to show Angel, the sadist himself was more than curious. Victor wondered why Wraith was here not for the Dark Captains but instead to show something, the mage kept on thinking and made several facial expressions to go along with it.

"Hey, Victor, are you alright?" IF asked Victor.

"Yeah, just thinking about why Wraith isn't here to help us find the Dark Captain who's lurking around somewhere," replied Victor as they continued to walk.

"Maybe he's going to help Lastation, Leanbox has got more than enough people looking for this elusive Dark Captain."

Victor shrugged and the walk continued. It wasn't long until a house came in sight and the group stopped, Wraith looked back at them before resuming his gaze towards the fields, suddenly a man could be seen crouching and appeared to be doing something, what he was doing no one was sure about. "Stay here for a moment, Wraith told everyone. "I think it's best that I handle the talking from here."

"Why is that?" Vert asked Wraith as he began to walk towards the strange man.

"Well, let's say that he isn't the most normal of people." Wraith navigated his way through the field and approached the man in front of him, he didn't register Wraith's appearance and continued to look at the ground with a trowel in his right hand.

"I say, good to see you again," Wraith greeted the man.

The strange man looked up at Wraith with an uncaring expression. The man had brown hair along with purple eyes, he wore a pair of glasses in front of his eyes, he had a collared white shirt covered in dirt and he wore dark brown pants, his boots were utterly weather-worn. It looked as if he hadn't cleaned himself for weeks. The man opened his mouth and spoke words which no one was prepared for.

"Welcome to the rice fields motherfucker!" the man said to Wraith.

"Hmm, I see things haven't changed much, you're still senile as ever. Don't you remember me? I'm Wraith."

The man stared at Wraith sternly before knocking his trowel on his head a few times. "Oh yeah, I remember ya. What're you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be looking after our boy?"

"I already have, and I brought a few quests with me, I'm sure you and your wife will be glad to meet them. Speaking of which, how is she?"

The man shivered. "Scary, that's what. You remember what she's like, don't you?"

Wraith nodded and to everyone's amazement he shivered with fright. "Yeah, she's a damn scary person alright."

"Oh, who is scary?" a woman asked as she appeared out of the fields, both the senile man and Wraith looked over at her, their hearts sank to the deepest depths of their bodies as the woman – who was the senile man's wife – approached them.

The woman was wearing dark blue jeans, a short sleeved blue shirt which appeared to be tight around her big breasts, she also wore a large hat. Her eyes were blue and her hair was a light brown with tinges of red in it. She didn't appear to be scary, that was until a familiar sadistic aura flowed from her, this surprised almost everyone. "I'll ask again, who is… hmm? Who are these people?"

The woman looked towards the group and the sadistic vibe went away as she approached them. "Hello, sorry I didn't see you before. How can I help you?" the woman greeted them.

"Hi there, we're with Wraith, apparently he wanted to show one of our friends something," IF explained. "I'm IF, this here is Compa, those two over here are Neptune and Vert, then there's Nepgear and finally Plutia and Angel."

The woman greeted everyone with good manners and was rather surprised when she was informed that Neptune and Vert were the Goddesses of Planeptune and Leanbox as well as Nepgear being the CPU Candidate of Planeptune, she wasn't expecting half of her guests to be goddesses, then the woman was told that Plutia was the Goddess of Planeptune in an alternate dimension which was a bit of a shock to her. When the woman's gaze fell upon Angel she stared at him, it was as if she had seen him before or recognised something about him. Angel returned the stare and the two of them looked at each other before IF broke the awkward silence.

"This is Angel, he comes from another dimension," IF informed the woman.

"Angel huh? Angel… Angel… wait, it can't be," the woman mumbled to herself, she then turned around and looked straight at her husband and Wraith, both men froze and didn't move a single muscle. "Wraith, care to explain something?"

With a sigh of either relief or dread Wraith made his way over to her. "Yeah, I can do some explaining if you want." He then looked over at Angel, the young sadist could tell that something odd was happening, Wraith beckoned for the senile man to come over as well, much to his chagrin. "Angel, meet your parents."

Silence reigned as everyone processed that fact into their minds, then came the uproar. "WHAT?!" everyone exclaimed, even the senile man. Wraith rubbed his ears due to the pain before he could speak.

"I'm being serious here, these are Angel's parents," Wraith informed everyone.

"I know," said Angel in a firm voice. "I look like them, and I can see how I got my sadistic personality." He then fully turned his attention to Wraith. "But why are my parents here when I was raised on Earth?"

Wraith scratched the back of his head through his hood and chuckled. "Well, I'll tell you the story. About a few decades ago by my standard I accidentally crashed landed in this rice field, and I was subjected to the sadism of your mother."

"You deserved it," Angel's mother butted in. "It took years to get that field up and running."

"And I am still sorry about it. Anyway, during that time the Console War was still occurring and your parents were worried that either Lastation or Planeptune would invade, then their home and rice farm would be in the way. When they showed me their infant son – aka you – and told me about t he problem they could face I offered to look after the boy, strangely enough your mother is good at telling how she can trust, so I was given the baby you and we made it to Earth where I raised you."

Angel looked surprised and Plutia squeezed his hand with her own. "Well, I didn't expect that. But if that's the case how come I don't remember you?"

"I messed around a bit with you mind and were unable to remember me. Don't worry, there wasn't any side effects."

Angel nodded. "Ah, I see, well that also explains why you were never around when Brian came over."

"Exactly, I was out and about. Anyway, welcome home."

The rest of the day went smoothly, well, things didn't go all that well for Angel's father and Wraith as they were subjected to a small fraction of the sadistic rage that was inside his mother. When Angel approached Wraith he saw how much the thousand year old man was shivering. "My mother can't be that scary," Angel said as he sat down next to him.

Wraith shook his head and sighed. "In all my long life I have seen many things, both natural and unnatural. I have seen the creation of time, the destruction of worlds, the rise and fall of empires, kingdoms and petty states, I have fought against many creatures both living and dead, I've seen horrors that even the God of the Underworld would quake at. But in all that time I have never seen anyone as frighting as your mother."

"Talking about me are you?" Angel's mother asked with a sadistic grin. As Wraith did his best to defuse the situation between himself and the sadistic mother Angel let out a quiet chuckle, it seems things for him had only gotten better. For the first time Angel felt he was truly home.

* * *

 **A/N: Lemon denied! Muwhahahahaha! I feel so evil! Don't worry, they'll be one some other time, maybe two or three. Anyway, like what I'm doing with IF and Victor? If you have any suggestions concerning all of this don't hesitate to let me know. I'm also doing my best to update whenever possible but new chapters may start coming out a bit later than usual in the upcoming weeks, just thought I let you know beforehand. As always, leave suggestions, questions, requests and whatnot if you wish and have a good day.**


	46. Confessions Through Agitation

**Chapter 45: Confessions Through Agitation**

Noire roamed around the kitchen early in the morning as she looked for a late night snack, the Lastation goddess was working overtime once again and she needed something to eat. The tsundere opened the fridge and saw a few puddings stocked at the back, she smiled and took one of them before closing the fridge door. After taking a spoon from one of the draws she left the kitchen and walked down the hallway towards the elevator that led back to her office. As she arrived at her office and sat down on her chair the CPU let out a deep sigh that had been building up in her for quite some time.

"Damn that Brian, why does he have to be so difficult?" Noire grumbled to herself as she ate away.

Ever since Brian had returned from the underground vault several days ago there was something different about him, the young man had been far more seclusive then before and had been spending more and more time in the Lastation library, he would then return to the Basilicom and hide himself away in his room. Whenever Noire would try to pry information out of Brian he would retort back and would start to get more and more grumpy. One time when Noire was questioning Brian a bit too much the young man's eyes flared up with Share Energy and a snarl grew on his face, what surprised the Lastation goddess even further was the fact that the Brian started to twitch all over his body, it was enough for Noire to back off and leave. Ever since then Noire, and even Uni, have kept their distance from Brian.

But now Noire was getting concerned about Brian's health, he had not come out for breakfast and Noire believed that the Ancient had stayed up all night, he did not even come out to eat lunch or dinner. As she finished off her pudding and made some more progress with the paperwork that made up a mountain on her desk her thoughts turned to Brian.

 _What am I supposed to do with him? I guess there isn't much I can do without force, but I don't want to use violence to get him out of his shell. I wonder… did Blanc ever had to put up with this? I better ask her about it, though I doubt she'll answer the call due to it being late._

Noire turned on her computer and sent a video call to Blanc, it took almost a minute of waiting before it was answered. On the screen glaring at Noire was a tired and grumpy Blanc in her sleepwear, the background around her was barely light and Noire could tell that the Lowee CPU had been sleeping before the call had been made. "Hey there, Blanc," Noire greeted the grumpy CPU.

"What is it, Noire?" Blanc asked in the grumpiest tone that Noire hadn't heard for a long time. "Tell me what you want or I'll go over to your Basilicom and raze it to the ground."

"Hey! No need to be _that_ rude!"

"You forced me to get out of my warm bed just so we could start an argument? Tch, pathetic. Just go back to working overtime with that paperwork you've got."

Noire glared at Blanc and griped her fists tightly. "Well at least I actually do work and not utterly fail at writing a book, unlike you."

Blanc snarled at Noire as she gripped on a stress ball, the CPU of Lowee's grip on it was so tight that the ball was crushed. "To hell with you! At least Brian appreciates my writing skills! Regardless, what do you want, Miss Tsundere? Oh, could you be mad about the fact that I have a new console coming out and you still haven't figured out a fifth version for your console?"

Noire growled and snarled her teeth at Blanc – who happened to be taking much pleasure out of it. "It isn't because of that! Besides, your new console is going to fail just like the previous one and I have released an updated version of my console. I'm calling you because of Brian."

Blanc looked at Noire and appeared to be more interested. "Brian? Is that the reason you called me this late?"

Noire nodded. "Something is off about him, none of us have seen him eating, I'm sure he hasn't been sleeping well and I've seen him twitch all over. It all started when he came back from a job concerning an underground vault in one of the abandoned factories some days ago, when he came back he was all quiet and wouldn't speak much, after that he spent all of his time inside his room surrounded by books from the city library. Have you ever had to put up with this before when he stayed in Lowee?"

Noire was surprised to see Blanc's mood die done until she looked more than worried, the small CPU sighed and appeared very gloomy. "Well, there was something similar yet not as bad as you described. It happened twice actually, the first time is when we… we… er, went on a d-date, the second time was the day after he fought against the Dark Captain in Lowee. It was only just some twitching, though his arms twitched almost violently."

Noire sighed and crossed her arms as she laid further back in her seat. "I guess something major screwed him up down in that vault. What did you do to calm him down?"

Blanc looked away from the screen and Noire noticed that she was blushing. "W-Well, I hugged him and held his hand."

Noire looked at Blanc in shock. "Seriously? Whoa, you two must be really close after all. A-Anyway I can't do that sort of… physical stuff to calm him down."

"Did he tell you what what he found in that vault?"

The Lastation CPU looked rather uncertain. "Um, sort of. All he mentioned was that the vault happened to be from the Ancient Era and was an armoury, apart from that he didn't say anything else."

"Hmm, guess we should go and check it out."

"Yeah, that would- wait, are you going to check it out?"

Blanc nodded. "I promised to myself that I would help Brian whenever something was troubling him, time to make good on that. Besides, I doubt that I would get much sleep after talking with you."

Noire raised an eyebrow and smirked. "Oh really? Or perhaps the real reason that you're going to help Brian is because of something else entirely? Maybe it's because you-"

"Shut your mouth," growled Blanc as her cheeks flushed red.

"Ooo, seems like I'm right, you do love him," chuckled Noire. "Our dear Blanny Blanny Bii has fallen for a young man, that's a first."

"Shut up or I'll post pictures of you coplaying onto the internet!"

Noire gasped in horror and became red in the face. "Wh-Wh-Wh-What?! I-I-I don't c-c-cosplay I assure you! You must have me mistaken for somebody else."

"Are you sure you want to find out?" Blanc now had an evil grin as she stared Noire down. "You seem to have forgotten that we were with you when that Anonydeath guy showed everyone your hobby."

"NO NO NO NO NO! Please don't mention that again!"

As Noire buried her head in her arms on the table Blanc chuckled and stood up. "Regardless, I'll meet you on your balcony." She then turned her computer off in order to get properly dressed, thus ending the video call.

Noire looked glum and grumbled to herself as she turned her computer off, she fell further back into her chair and sighed. "Why does everyone have to make fun of me just because I cosplay? It's damn annoying!"

"Are you alright, Lady Noire?" asked a voice.

Noire looked up to her left and saw Kei looking down at her with paperwork in her arms, the Oracle had her somewhat expressionless face and didn't appear to be tired. Noire nodded and sat up straight. "Yeah, I'm alright, just had a little chat with Blanc about Brian is all."

"I see. What did Lady Blanc had to say about Brian's behaviour?"

"She said that she had dealt with something similar to it during his stay in Lowee, though it wasn't as bad as this. I'm going to be waiting for her while she gets here. Hmm, I suppose I could take Uni as well. Where is she anyway?"

"Lady Uni went to bed not long ago, if you intend to take her with you then you'll have to wake her up."

"Hmm, I really don't want to disturb Uni's sleep, so I'll guess it is better to leave her here." Noire then stood up and stretched her back. "I'm going to be waiting for Blanc outside, think you can handle the rest of the paperwork?"

Kei nodded before sitting down in Noire's chair and begun to sign paperwork at a quick rate, the Lastation CPU then walked out onto the balcony and waited for Blanc, who was most likely in her HDD form, to arrive. Noire was not quite sure how long she waited for White Heart to arrive but when the CPU of Lowee did finally arrive out on the balcony Noire was not amused at how long it took for her to get there. "You sure took your time getting here," Noire grumbled.

"I had to deal with Mina questioning me, then Rom and Ram woke up and started interrogating me about what I was doing," White Heart explained, her voice was dripping with annoyance. "Anyway, you know where this vault is?"

Noire nodded as she transformed into Black Heart. "That I do, I will lead the way. Try and keep up."

White Heart glared at Black Heart but nonetheless followed her through the night sky towards the north-east, the city below them was peaceful at night yet there were many people still working in the factories and in the stores. It amazed most people from the other nations that the people of Lastation worked hard and overtime, just like their CPUs – the CPUs of Lastation were role models, especially Noire who's ego had only inflated when people called her the 'ideal goddess'. White Heart raised an eyebrow at the dedication towards work and shook her head.

"Your people are gonna die young if they working like that. You do realise that don't ya?" White Heart told Black Heart.

"Yeah right, my people know that hard work will get you anywhere in life, it won't affect their health," retorted Black Heart.

"Brian doesn't believe that, he says that it is luck that gets you through life."

Black Heart would have continued the discussion if she hadn't seen the look on White Heart's face, the Lowean CPU had a sad expression and would usually throw a few glances at the Basilicom until they were out of the city and flew over the grassland between the city and the abandoned factory. The Lastation CPU wouldn't admit it but she was worried for White Heart, the CPU of Lowee was unable to hide her emotions when Brian was involved and now Black Heart was concerned about her fellow CPU. Did he really mean that much to her?

"Hey, Blanc, are you alright?" Black Heart asked her as the grassy knolls came into sight.

The blue haired goddess nodded without looking at Black Heart. "I'm fine, keep your concerns to yourself."

The Lastation CPU stared sternly at her fellow CPU for a moment, she didn't believe her, in the end she sighed and continued to fly onward. As they passed the grassy knolls White Heart felt as if something was off with the area. "Is it me or is this place… kinda creepy?" she asked.

"I'll admit, it does give me the chills," responded Black Heart. "People say that this area is even creepier at night than during the day, there's even an old rumour that people still murmur about. It's said that this place is haunted by ghosts from a bygone era."

"Pfft, that's just superstitious nonsense, there ain't no ghosts around here; I can't see them."

"Regardless if the grassy knolls are haunted or not, the factory is just up ahead."

True to her word the abandoned factory was just ahead, within a few second it was in clear sight and both CPUs were amazed at how the environment had reclaimed the land for itself, trees and bushes were growing all over the place and vines made their home all over the walls. The two CPUs landed in the ruins of the factory and warily walked around in case any surviving pieces of machinery were sticking out of the ground, fortunately for the two of them most had been buried underground. It took some time for White Heart and Black Heart to find pipeline fifty three – mainly because Brian never told Noire where it was – but when they entered the passageway both CPUs could sense something, to them it felt… old, incredibly old.

"Can you feel it?" Black Heart asked White Heart.

The CPU of Lowee nodded. "Yeah, feels as if we've entered another world down here, it's almost like those grassy knolls outside."

"Brian did say that this place was in use during the Ancient Era, and I'm guessing that he must have been the only person to enter the vault in thousands of years, no wonder this place feels otherworldly." Black Heart continued to walk while her gaze fell upon her comrade. "Hey, did Brian ever tell you anything regarding the Ancients? If so then there might be a clue that could explain his behaviour."

White Heart was confounded with what to respond with, everything that Brian told her involved around his nerve wracking visions and they felt really personal to him, White Heart was aware that it had been hard for Brian to even reveal his vision to her. Now she could either tell Black Heart about it or deny that Brian told her anything. In order to keep Brian's secret visions with himself as well as herself White Heart refused to tell the Lastation CPU anything regarding the Ancients.

"Sorry, he didn't say anything," lied White Heart in order to keep the secret. "The only things I know about the Ancients is what Histoire told us."

Black Heart looked at her fellow CPU in doubt for a moment but then shrugged her shoulders. "Whatever. Oh, I think we've found the entrance."

Sure enough they had found the door, it seemed that there were even more marks on the rock and even burn marks could be clearly seen, it looked as if someone had tried to smash their way through with explosives. "Well, someone's been here and I think it ain't Brian," said White Heart.

Black Heart nodded as her gaze fell upon the seal on the stone slab next to the inaccessible door, she approached it and ran her finger upon it to figure out what the faded symbol in the centre was, she traced it around and finally understood what the symbols was: a power symbol. "Blanc, found something that may help us."

White Heart approached and stared at the symbol. "Is that a carving of a power symbol?"

"Yes it is, and I think I know how Brian got into the vault." Black Heart then raised her right hand and the palm rested against the symbol, with a little bit of effort the Lastation CPU channelled her Share Energy into the seal. It lit up and began to move around as the door next to it opened, revealing the vault inside. With a sense of foreboding both CPUs entered with White Heart going first, then their eyes gazed upon the huge amount of weapons and armour systematically laid out, none of the designs were recognisable to either of them.

"Well then, this is something I didn't expect," said a dumbfounded White Heart.

"Agreed. I only wonder what would have happened to the Console War if I had my hands on these," muttered Black Heart as she wandered around and looked at the different weapons and armour.

"I doubt they would have done any good, this stuff is from another era entirely."

"But look at some of these weapons, they're more advanced that what any of us have today. It's incredible."

The CPU of Lowee shook her head and sighed before she took a look around the place, so far she had not seen anything that could have triggered Brian into such an antisocial state, that was until she began to think about the last few times he had such a problem.

 _Hmm, the first time was in that ruined village when he touch a mark on a wall, the second time was on our date, the third was when he had a bad dream of sorts. I wonder, could it have been… oh no. He's had another vision hasn't he?_

As White Heart realised what was wrong she saw something on the ground nearby, it appeared to be sharp and was out of place unlike the other weapons and armour. She bent down to the ground and picked the small blade up, it was a curved dagger. As she held the blade the Lowean CPU noticed how the blade itself was coloured in a dark shade of red as if it was dried up blood, it made her shiver a bit. Black Heart noticed what her companion was holding and walked over to look at it, she too noticed the odd colour on the blade and grimaced as she thought about it.

"Its blood isn't it?" Black Heart asked.

White Heart nodded. "I'm sure it is. This place hasn't been affected by time so everything in this vault has stayed exactly the same as it had been ever since the Ancient Era, so it's no wonder that this dagger has dried blood on it. But whose blood is it?"

"Who knows, maybe we'll never find out, and it's probably better if we don't know." The Lastation goddess looked up at the nearby wall and noticed the writing on it, she approached it and gazed at the words. "Hmm, 'For the glory of Gamindustri! – Death to the Ancients!'. Interesting."

"What is?" White Heart asked as she got closer while still carrying the dagger.

"This, read the graffiti that's carved in the wall."

The Lowean CPU read the words and raised an eyebrow. "So, I guess the Ancients must have had an enemy. Gamindustri huh? I wonder why none of the history books that I have mention about this sort of thing?"

Black Heart shrugged. "Knowledge comes and goes, although I must admit that it is strange that much history concerning the Ancients has been lost. It's too much of a coincidence in my opinion."

White Heart sighed and looked towards the entryway, she now had a good idea of what was flowing through Brian's mind. The Lowean CPU had come up with the conclusion that Brian had seen some sort of vision down in the vault, whether it was from the dagger or the graffiti she did not know, he must have seen something that involved bloodshed and war, just like like the other visions. Whatever he saw must have screwed his mind up utterly. The Lowean CPU knew what she had to do next: go to Brian and break him out of his antisocial state. Black Heart turned around and noticed the depressed expression plastered all over and grew very concerned.

"You sure you're alright?" Black Heart asked her.

"To be honest… I'm very worried about Brian," White Heart replied honestly and in a quiet tone, her gaze fell to the floor as she spoke. "I need to break his behaviour and get him to open up again, but I don't think I can do it."

Black Heart stared at her fellow CPU before smirking, she walked up to White Heart and placed a gloved hand onto her right shoulder as she looked at her. "Since when did you ever doubt yourself? If you start to do that then you're not worthy of being a CPU. Where's the Blanc that I knew who would charge straight on into the thick of battle after she transforms? Where is the stoic bookworm who cares for those around her? Where are they now?"

White Heart looked at Black Heart and glared at her. "Shut up," grumbled the Lowean CPU.

"I guess you're the same person after all, just don't doubt yourself, not even if you fail." A cheeky grin then formed on her face as she looked at White Heart with a mischievous look in her eyes. "So then, how do you plan on getting Brian out of his shell? Are you going to barge into his room and yell at him? Are you going to pull at his heartstrings? Or maybe you're going to 'offer' yourself to him. Am I right?"

White Heart growled at Black Heart as she moved away from her. "Screw you, pervert!"

"Pervert?! I am not a pervert, flatty!" the Lastation CPU retorted as her hands when to her hips in a defiant stance.

"Flatty?! Grrr… take that back before I break ya into pieces!"

"Like hell I'm going to take that back after you insulted me!"

"Hmph, at least Brian appreciates the size of my chest."

The situation seemed to die down with that remark, Black Heart lost her defiant stance and looked quizzically at White Heart. "Seriously? He's a 'flat is justice' kinda guy?" The Lastation CPU was amused when the Lowean CPU nodded with a tinge of red in her cheeks, Black Heart then began to laugh. "Now I understand why you like him so much."

White Heart glanced away as she blushed. "I-It's because of more than just him liking my chest size you know, underneath all of that anger he really is a sweet person."

Black Heart chuckled as she began to walk towards the entrance. "Then I guess we better get back to my Basilicom so you can work out your love life with him."

White Heart grumbled as she placed the curved dagger into a container and followed Black Heart. "You didn't need to word it like that, ya damn tsundere."

"I am not a tsundere!"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever."

* * *

The trip back to the Basilicom was uneventful, for the majority of the way White Heart kept quiet and tried to think about what would be the best thing to say to Brian in order to break his recently found antisocial life while Black Heart too kept quiet. When the two CPUs finally reached the Lastation Basilicom they reverted back to their human forms and made their way towards Brian's room, it took a few minutes before they found themselves in a hallway where both CPUs could see a bedroom light shining out from underneath a door.

"That's Brian's room," Noire informed Blanc. "I guess he's still awake."

Blanc nodded. "I'll go see him and see what I can do."

Noire looked at Blanc and noticed a tinge of red in her cheeks, the Lastation CPU giggled as Blanc looked at her. "Be honest with me, Blanc, do you love Brian?"

With that question Blanc's cheeks flushed in a deep shade of red as she began to stammer. "W-Well, I… I-I-I… I do. I do love him."

Noire chuckled and grinned at Blanc. "Then you should tell him that, it could break him out of his current state."

"Maybe, but… I don't know if I can do it."

"Don't start doubting yourself again, just go and tell him what you need to tell him. Good luck."

Blanc smiled at Noire and nodded. "Alright then, thank you." The little goddess then walked off towards Brian's room in a slow pace.

The CPU of Lastation watched for a few seconds before walking off towards her own room for some sleep, the sun was going to rise over the horizon in five hours. As she walked down the hallway she sighed and a smile grew on her face. "Good luck, Blanc, I mean it. I hope you find the happiness that you wish for. I wonder… what does love feel like?"

As Noire wondered what it felt like Blanc arrived outside Brian's door, the CPU of Lowee could hear the sounds of grumbling and the pages of books being flipped over. Blanc was about to knock on the door but stopped when she heard his pacing around the room, ever mumbling and groaning in annoyance. It took some courage for Blanc to raise her fist and knock gently on the door, the call went unanswered so the Lowean CPU merely knocked again… and again for over a minute. Eventually Blanc started to get more than agitated and knocked once more, this time with some force. It was this knock that got a reply, but not a nice one.

"Sod off," came the muffled reply.

Blanc growled and banged her fist against the door more loudly. "It's me you Ancient bastard! Blanc!"

Silence enveloped around them, suddenly the door opened to reveal Brian standing up with a dishevelled face, he was wearing his black pyjamas and it looked like it needed ironing, Blanc could see his facial hair starting to grow back. "Blanc? Why are you here at this time?" Brian asked her in a surprised voice.

"I'm here to see you," Blanc replied as she walked into the room. Brian's room was styled in the usual Lastation fashion, the walls were a mix of black and white, the bed had black and grey sheets while the floor was made up of a black carpet. The only source of light was coming from a small lamp on top of a set of draws next to the bed. The bed took up the back centre of the room while a desk took up some more space near the window, on the desk was a huge amount of books, some open and some closed, others filled with bookmarks. But when Blanc had mentioned that she was here to see him Brian scoffed and sat down on the chair at the desk.

"Come here to see me huh? Bullshit, you're here because Noire thinks you can 'fix me up'. Am I right?"

Blanc was surprised at how Brian spoke to her, normally he would be kind and caring with his words, but this was new and Blanc didn't like it. She didn't respond to his retorting question, to which Brian mumbled something and turned his attention back to the books on the desk and began to look through them while writing on a piece of paper near him. "So I was right, you're here only because Noire begged you to. Pathetic."

Blanc glared at Brian and managed to prevent herself from doing any damage to the one she loved. "Never mind that, what are you doing?" she asked the Ancient.

The young man stopped what he was doing and glanced at Blanc, the CPU could see the sadness and hatred in his eyes. "I suppose I can tell you. I'm looking into the final days of the Ancient Era and the disappearance of the first CPU."

"But why? Why is this more important than anything else?"

"Revenge. You haven't seen what I have seen."

The Lowean CPU sighed and looked at Brian with a saddened expression. "Seems like I guessed correctly, you must have had another vision."

Brian nodded. "That I did. I saw… I saw… bloody hell, I saw the slaughtering of my race by the first CPU, Kurome, and her savage lieutenant, Agandur who happens to be the Dark Lord and the one that the Dark Captains are trying to resurrect."

The news was shocking for Blanc, from what she could gather from all the history books that she read the first CPU had no name or it was just never remembered, but to hear that she slaughtered the Ancients at the end of the Ancient Era was surprising. Then there was Agandur the Dark Lord, Blanc was lost for words when she heard that piece of news. She would never have guessed that the same man who was planned to be resurrected by the Dark Captains also happened to be Kurome's right hand man. "Was there anything else?" Blanc asked Brian, she soon regretted asking that question.

Brian stared at the desk and felt utterly depressed as well as angry, a burning passion for vengeance flared through him. "There was one last thing, I think Kurome might have killed my mother, at least I thought she was my mother anyway. She was only just a kid and that damn CPU stabbed her with my father's dagger. I hate her, and that's why I have been like this for days. I've been searching for clues that will lead me to Kurome so I may tear her apart limb from limb!"

"But the history books tell that she died, this is all pointless."

The Ancient quickly glanced at Blanc as his eyes flared bright blue with Share Energy. "Pointless?! I'll give you pointless! The Console War was utterly pointless, look at how many died for something that need not have happened, they all died because you CPUs became greedy for power! That war was utterly pointless!"

Blanc looked mortified and she felt tears starting to creep up around her eyes, memories of the Console War crept into her mind as she held back the tears. She had seen the horrors of battle, she had held dying soldiers in her arms as they uttered the names of their loved ones for a final time, she had seen people die in combat and she had to face those bad memories for two hundred years. Finally she couldn't hold it back any more, tears flowed down her cheeks and her anger towards Brian exploded into the air. "Screw you! You have never been in battle, you never had to hold the dying in your arms and hear them say their last words! Stop living in the past, it won't change the future."

"What do you mean 'stop living in the past'? The destruction of the Ancients has effected the present in ways no one can ever see! Don't you start complaining to me about that!"

"Shut up!"

"Make me!"

"Fine!" Blanc then quickly grabbed Brian by the collar and forced his face to come close to hers, then with quick speed she launched forward and their lips connected. It was something Brian didn't expect at all, in fact his eyes returned to their normal state because of it. The kiss between them was rough and then things started to get out of hand.

Brian felt an opening in Blanc's mouth and his tongue made its way into her mouth where it was met by her own tongue, as their tongues wrapped around one another Blanc pushed Brian against the wall and drove her tongue straight into his mouth. The Lowean CPU then wrapped an arm around the back of Brian's head while the other arm snaked around his back, Brian in turn wrapped one arms around her back and a hand behind her head. As this continued on Brian could hear Blanc moan and together the two of them seemed lost in their own desires. Brian pulled back and it was his turn to push Blanc against the wall with no complaints from her, he kissed her neck, cheek and finally moved in for another passionate kiss.

Blanc was moved up against the walls and this allowed her to wrap her legs around Brian's back, she then had both of her arms moved around the back of Brian's neck and head. This didn't last for long as Blanc pushed Brian forward and both lost their balance, thus ending up on the floor with Blanc on top of Brian. Brian twisted around so Blanc was underneath him, one of his hands was next to her head while the other was next to her waist, Blanc's hat had fallen off and her coat had started to fall off. Then both Brian and Blanc snapped out of the lust that had enveloped them. Blanc widened her eyes and her cheeks flushed deeply with red while Brian started to stammer and twitch.

"By Jupiter! I-I-I-I'm s-s-sorry Blanc! I didn't know what I was-" Brian began to explain before he was cut off by Blanc moving her head up and connected her lips with his once more, this time it was a more gentle kiss. This only lasted a few seconds before Blanc parted from Brian, she looked at him and a smile grew on her face, it was the one that made Brian blush uncontrollably.

"I love you, Brian," Blanc told him, her voice was filled with happiness. "I've loved you ever since our date back in Lowee."

The Ancient stared at Blanc for a short moment before he broke out in a smile of his own. "Well, you've just made it easier for me then. I love you too, Blanc, I have for a while now." He then laid down next to Blanc and the two of them stared at one another lovingly for a time. "Let's not fight like that again. Promise?"

Blanc nodded in agreement. "Promise, you made me think of some bad memories and I never want to go through that again."

"S-Sorry about that, I didn't know what I was thinking."

Blanc smiled at him as she snuggled close to his chest, she glanced in the direction of his heart and quietly sighed. The CPU of Lowee had realised that Brian had a dark heart that was filled with hatred, anger, vengeance and all manner of emotions, yet there was kindness breaking out of it as well as love. Blanc then glanced at a nearby clock and realised how late it was. "Um, I think we should get some sleep," Blanc told Brian as she started to get off the floor.

"A-Alright then." He got off the floor and was surprised when he saw Blanc take off her coat, straighten her dress and began to get under the covers of Brian's bed. "Um, what are you doing?"

"Going to bed, what does it look like?" She couldn't hide the blush that engulfed her cheeks. "Come on, get to bed already."

Brian hurried into bed and turned the lamp off, as he laid on his back and stared at the ceiling Blanc moved close to him and planted her head on his chest, she looked at him with loving eyes. "Are you feeling better yet, Brian?" she asked him.

The young man nodded with honesty. "That I am, I'm sorry about what I said to you, I truly am. I guess I am just a hateful man after all."

"That's not true, you're just a little bit misguided in which direction you looking at. Give up on the past, Brian, but don't forget it, just don't let your hatred get the better of you."

Brian smiled at Blanc before gently patting her head. "Alright then, time to move forward with my life. Want to be a part of it?"

Blanc nodded before moving close to his face, she then kissed him on the lips for a second before moving back and smiling at him. "Thank you, Brian, thank you for everything."

"I should be saying that, but your welcome. And thank you as well."

Blanc giggled and hugged the Ancient as she laid her head on his chest, she soon fell into a peaceful sleep. Brian watched as a relaxed expression formed on her face, it seemed as if she was having a good dream. With a sigh filled with happiness Brian looked back at the ceiling and closed his eyes as sleep called out to him.

* * *

Far outside the Basilicom on top of a tallish building stood two women, one had long flowing silver hair and dark green eyes with a power symbol in them, she wore a black dress along with gloves, both had silver coloured swirls running around them, apart from that she also wore black boots and it seemed that pieces of padded armour were attached to the dress. Her companion had bright blue hair that stuck up all over the place along with pink eyes that had a power symbol in each one, unlike her companions she was not wearing a dress, instead the blue haired figure was wearing padded white armour as well as a HDD bodysuit similar to White Heart's, but instead of it looking like a one piece swimsuit it covered most of her body minus some areas on the arms and legs. She was staring towards the window of Brian's room and apparently she had seen the make out session between Blanc and Brian, she chuckled and sighed with relief.

"About bloody time it happened, still, I'm disappointed they didn't take it further than that," the blue haired woman said to her companion.

The silver haired woman sighed and glanced sternly at the blue haired woman. "You're such a pervert, are you wanting them to do such a disgraceful activity?"

"Disgraceful? It ain't disgraceful at all, it's merely a part of our life which none of us were able to experience thanks to you, Minerva."

The silver haired woman, aka Minerva, grumbled and looked away. "Shut up, Bellona, you're too interested in their life you know."

Bellona looked at Minerva with a grin on her face. "A mother should always take care of their child, because of that I'm watching over my dear Blanc and her hubby Brian to make sure everything goes well. You should take more care with watching over that tsundere of yours."

"Our successors are not our children, we didn't give birth to them so your argument is invalid. We're only here to watch over our nations, not babysit our successors' lives from the shadows like you are."

Bellona growled at Minerva whilst her fists became tightened. "Don't you even care about what's happening here? Things are going to hell and you don't seem to care at all!"

"This isn't our fight."

"But we're part of this world! This is our fight! No amount of words are going to stop me from helping even if you won't aid the people of Gamindustri." Bellona then stood up and began to disappear, her glowing body faded into the moonlight and Minerva was soon left by herself.

Minerva had a sad expression as she looked back at the Lastation Basilicom, she then looked away and sighed depressingly. "I know we are part of this world, and I do want to help, but there is little that can be done. We're dead, I killed everyone including myself, now we are just mere shades made up of lost Share Energy, there isn't anything we can do. I'm sorry, Bellona, but we can't fight because we're unable to." She looked back at the Basilicom one last time with her sad expression before fading away in the moonlight, waiting for a new day to dawn.

* * *

 **A/N: I got this chapter finished more quickly than I originally anticipated, for that I will be spending more time on the next chapter so it might take over a week or two for the next one to come out. Amused with how Brian and Blanc confessed to each other? Originally it was meant to be more peaceful, but I thought that since both of them get angry easily why not let their feelings take over their senses when they get mad? It's something different at least. Anyway, have a good day readers and stay tuned for the next chapter.**


	47. Tomorrow

**Chapter 46: Tomorrow**

Seagulls chirped and fought for any food scraps that they could find on the beach while the sun rose further through the sky in the early morning, clouds had begun to gather in the blue sky as the day wore on and on the ground there was much commotion on the small island. Bands of people were moving turrets around the rocky ground, some were placed around small rocky formations while others were situated in more open areas. There were also a few people digging small holes and planting what seemed like mines, a few others were building small hideouts in the rocky formations so they could be used as spots for snipers. The Zune District was preparing for battle. Atop a tall hill made from a rocky formation stood a tall solitary man, a grey mask was over his face with metal rivets along the side of it and his head, his dark blue hair flowed in the wind as he watched the people below work with the turrets.

 _It is almost time, we are a prepared for a battle with the CPUs and their pitiful friends. The Share Energy of Leanbox will be captured, although I wish I knew why it is Share Energy that's needed for the Dark Lord's resurrection. I'm sure that the Right Hand knows what it is for, though I think would be better if he told us why._

Kharzark's thoughts were distracted by the sounds of footsteps coming behind him, he turned around and saw Arfoire approaching him, a small grin was on her face. "Everything is going well down there, but it is rather similar to what I did when I went up against the CPUs."

She stopped walking once she stood next to Kharzark the Interrogator, the fire wizard turned and glanced at her. "I wonder, do you happen to have any of those… what do you call them? Anti-crystals? Yes, that's it. Do you have any of them with you?"

Arfoire shook her head, she seemed a bit disappointed as well. "I'm afraid not, I used the last of my supply of anti-crystals when I delt with that crazy CPU of Tari when she tried to destroy Planeptune and kill the Goddesses."

"Why did you stop her? Surely you did not start to feel sympathetic towards those CPUs?"

Arofire shook her head. "No, it isn't that. I refuse to let anyone else defeat the Goddesses besides me, I'm even swallowing my pride with you Dark Captains running around causing chaos, though I won't say I am against that."

"Why thank you, I'm flattered." Kharzark then glanced down to the curved and spiky sword that made up most of his right arm, the interrogator then hummed as he pulled out a sharpening stone and began to sharpen his deadly blade as he sat down on the ground. "Don't mind me, just making sure it can kill."

Arfoire nodded and turned her gaze back towards the amount of work that was occurring down below, she then noticed that some of the Dark Followers were patching up areas around the ruined factory to create a defensible fort in case there happened to be a last stand. It amazed the witch how these people would put their lives on the line for a person they never seen before, with this curiosity in her mind she looked back at the bulky Interrogator and decided to speak her mind. "How did you manage to get this many Dark Followers? I must say I'm amazed with how many people would eagerly lay down their faith and join you Dark Captains."

Kharzark chuckled as he continued to sharpen his sword arm without looking at Arfoire. "Manipulation is one reason, the other is propaganda. With that some people throughout Gamindustri have stopped believing in their chosen goddess, instead decided to not believe in anyone or have decided to put their faith in the Dark Lord."

"How can they put their faith with the Dark Lord if he isn't alive as well as not being in this dimension?"

"Well, from what I could get out of the Right Hand it seems that the Dark Lord is still alive, but only in spirit form. When we were defeated by what was left of the Empire back in our home dimension the Dark lord used this odd attack move that allowed him to destroy the landscape and kill anyone in range at the cost of his own life force, in this case the Dark Lord destroyed most of the enemy army and lost his body in the process. For some reason the Right Hand thinks that Share Energy will be able to revive him into this world, I doubt it'll work."

Arfoire scratched her chin thoughtfully and glanced off into the distance. "Hmm, sounds like Agandur's Right Hand is hiding something important. I wonder though… hmm, did the Dark Lord ever had people worship him back in your dimension?"

"Yes, many of the so-called barbarian tribes worshipped him just as many here worship the CPUs. Do you know something I don't?"

"Well, I wouldn't say that, this is merely a hypothesis. I think that the Dark Lord must have used Share Energy and managed to gain faith from whatever people believed in him, therefore I'm guessing that by gathering the Share Energy of the four nations the Right Hand hopes that some sort of connection could be made with the Dark Lord, but even I don't have an idea how that can happen."

"I see, so that is why we need the Shadow Walker alive, he will become the Dark Lord's new body. Though I wonder how the Right Hand is going to get the Dark Lord's spirit into this dimension and into the Shadow Walker's body, perhaps via spell or some other wacky method? Guess we'll find out eventually."

Arfoire nodded. "I am interested in what this Dark Lord is like, I'm eagerly waiting for the time we resurrect him."

"Well then, be prepared for what will happen soon enough."

The two of them gazed out at the scene below them and eventually their gaze turned to the rising sun, everything seemed peaceful if one was to not hear the banging sounds of metal against metal and rocks. Arfoire took a short moment to look at Kharzark without him knowing, the gothic witch felt as if this was the first time she was even remotely close to some, especially a human at that. A day beforehand Arfoire had inquired to Kharzark about what he looked like behind his mask, eventually he relented and took his mask off to show her what he truly looked like. Arfoire found it a bit shocking to say the least, she had never seen as immense burn damage on a person before that day, but despite that she could tell that he had once been a handsome person.

Kharzark then told her that she was the third person to see his actual face, the other two were the Dark Lord and Lothar the Bloodthirsty, although it wasn't on purpose when it came to the latter. After some more pestering, as Kharzark had put it, the Interrogator finally told the witch most of his life back from where he came from. She became dazzled with the explanations he gave her about the land from where came from, the Interrogator told her of the Empire that ruled most of the land and the barbarian tribes to the north, and even the Northern Wasteland which lied even further north, then he told the witch about his mixed origin as his father was a barbarian while his mother was an imperial, then came the tale about his early life as a slave. Then he told her about his real name being Brutus and the events that led to him becoming the man he is today. It was all quite a story for Arfoire.

Kharzark looked up and noticed Arfoire glancing at him with a small smile on her face, behind his mask he frowned and looked confused. "What is it? You're looking at me," he asked.

"Oh it's nothing," replied Arfoire as she looked away. "Although, there is one thing. Do you remember the video call last night?"

Kharzark nodded. "That I do. damn that Lothar, he's too reckless, but it does give me an opportunity to gain this nation's Share Energy while our enemy is divided into two groups, one in Leanbox and the other in Lastation. While I am concerned that Lothar might cause too much destruction I have no doubt that his task will be easier than ours, that barbarian has control over several factories that can produce weapons of war for him. I am slightly concerned about our position against the enemy forces arrayed in Leanbox, my spies have informed me that a few more bastards arrived from Planeptune yesterday. Altogether that makes four CPUs and four humans, one of which I have got a bone to pick with and the other uses some type of wind magic."

Arfoire sighed. "Sounds like we've got our hands full then, I guess your bloodthirsty counterpart has it easy."

The Interrogator nodded in agreement. "Yeah, that lucky bastard only has to put up with five CPUs and one human, two of those CPUs are just weak girls and two others who rule Lastation can be dealt with once their Share Energy is taken away."

"Do you have any plans for taking the Share Energy of Leanbox?"

Kharzark put his left – and only – hand underneath his chin and began to summarise a few ideas. "Hmm… we could try to force our way in, but that would take up to much of our strength in the end. Or maybe we could sneak in and do what we must, although I would like to go out with a bang as well, so we could plant a few bombs around their Basilicom as well. How's that?"

Arfoire grinned with satisfaction. "I like it, let's go out with a bang and see how many of them we can kill. The more the better."

Kharzark grinned behind his mask and looked back towards the defences being prepared for the inevitable battle to come, only one thing was on his mind though. "Tomorrow," the Interrogator mumbled as he stared off into the distance.

* * *

As the defences in the Zune District were set up there was a commotion stirring in the south-east part of Lastation City, the south-east portion of the city had the most factories and some of them were weapon and robot manufacturers which had become Dark Followers, this was because the factory owners had lost their faith with Noire after the end of the Console War when they were unable to provide military equipment to the armed forces. With these military factories under the control of Lothar the Bloodthirsty the Dark Followers that worked with him now had full access to the best weapons and armour that Lastation could provide, not only that but Lothar also had control over the factories that could make him some killachines as well.

For the last few weeks Lothar and his Dark Followers had been building up their army and now with Anonydeath at their side they had managed to increase the production of their weapons, armour and killer machines, the perverted robot – or man in a robot suit – had also gained access to the Lastation Basilicom's network and was able to tune into their security. This was something that would come in handy during spying missions. Lothar was ready for war, that was the case until last night when a video call occurred between himself and the ex soldier in Lastation, Kharzark and Arfoire in the Zune District, finally the Right Hand and Severia in the cave system underneath Haruno Village. The issue: getting the Share Energy from Leanbox and Lastation.

Agandur's Right Hand was heavily concerned that both Lothar and Kharzark would do something stupid and cause unnecessary damage, it seemed that the Right Hand had long term plans for the future. Kharzark and Arfoire said that no damage would come to the city of Leanbox, but Lothar promised no such thing. The bloodthirsty warlord said that if the city of Lastation was destroyed in the process then so be it, he would only unleash his forces if the CPUs and the Shadow Walker fight back. As the Right Hand grumbled Severia took over the conversation by trying to convince Lothar to not deal too much damage to the city if battle would ever occur, Lothar then gave in and swore that he would not destroy the city if needed, it was a surprise to everyone that Lothar agreed to Severia's words. Although many doubted his words, but Kharzark believed his bloodthirsty counterpart, it seemed to him that Lothar had a soft spot for Severia and vice versa.

But now Lothar was starting to run out of ideas with taking the Share Energy of Lastation, his first plan was to smash his way through the city and the Basilicom but he was unable to do that now, his second plan was to blow up the Basilicom, Lothar sighed with relief when he knew that option was still somewhat available. As the bloodthirsty warlord paced around his new headquarters – which was a factory that produced weapons – in the south-east of Lastation, he walked up and down the grey and black hallways with his arms behind his back, he had his armour off and everyone could see his clothes – Lothar had adopted to wearing modern clothes as his last set became too ragged to wear. At any rate, Lothar the Bloodthirsty was become agitated.

"The hell am I going to take that bloody Share Energy?" Lothar mumbled to himself as he paced in the hallway near his chosen bedroom.

He was wearing a black shirt along with dark grey shorts, everyone who was to walk nearby could see his well defined muscles in his arms and legs, it was clear that he was a tough warrior. Lothar could hear the sounds of machines coming from the other end of the factory, then came the sounds of people barking orders and some were running in different directions, it seemed that a few Dark Followers were preparing to go out and do some quests that had been posted in the Guild while the factory workers did what they did best. Lothar entered his room and sat down on a plastic fold up chair before putting his hands under his chin.

"Hmm… this is gonna be more difficult than I thought," Lothar continued to mumble.

"Do you need any ideas?" a voice asked from the hallway.

Lothar looked up and watched as the owner of the voice entered the room, it was the ex soldier who accompanied Anonydeath whenever he wanted to hack into the Lastation Basilicom's network. "Is there something you needed? If not then leave," spoke Lothar.

"I asked if you needed ideas regarding the plan to take the Share Energy, you seem to be a bit stuck," responded the black haired man.

Lothar sighed in defeat and mildly glared at the former soldier. "Yeah I am, what of it? You sure you have any ideas that aren't worthless? If so then you are testing my patience, Henderson."

"I might." Then the ex soldier, called Henderson, leaned down and whispered something into Lothar's ear, the Dark Captain listened before grinning.

"Not bad, not bad at all," mumbled Lothar with a devious grin. "Divide and conquer, that's a good strategy."

"Henderson nodded as he straightened his back. "It should work, but you're the boss so it lies with your judgement."

The bloodthirsty Dark Captain stood up and cracked his neck before grinning, he then walked over to a nearby table and gazed down at the map of the nation of Lastation. Next to this map was a larger map that covered the entire city of Lastation, this map had several pins stabbed in different places, most noticeably the Basilicom and the factories in the south-east. "I think I have just turned your idea into a full on battle plan, divide and conquer, those CPUs and the Shadow Walker are going to get their asses handed to them."

"So what's the plan?" Henderson asked.

"Oh you'll see, in fact I'm putting you in charge of the group that will be a major part of this plan."

This piqued Henderson's interests. "Me? What for, sir?"

"Because you're a soldier and you fought in the… what did you damn people call it? The Console War? Yeah, that's it. You're practically a veteran so it's a natural choice. Besides, Anonydeath is going to take care of some other business before I take the Share Energy of this country."

"When will this happen?"

Lothar looked away and his gaze turned towards a nearby window, the sunlight gazed through it and into the room, lighting it up. "Tomorrow," Lothar replied in an almost quiet tone.

* * *

The sounds of howling and growling echoed throughout the cave system underneath Haruno Village, these sounds were coming from the pits in the caves that were filled with fernirs and the Right Hand's new favourite creatures: werewolf-like people. These werewolves were not the sort of beasts that were found in stories, instead these creatures were more wolf-like but instead of walking on all fours they stood up right, that and they were unable to transform between human and wolf form like in the stories. At any rate these werewolf-like creatures were completely deadly and savage – they were not to be messed with.

Agandur's Right Hand had continued to blend fernir DNA and human DNA together and blended them together into human or fernir subjects, then the breeding pits were filled with these new specimens. Severia continued to protest about it but to no success, instead she had decided to remain silent and keep her objection to herself. However, she wasn't the only one to object to the experiments. Warechu made his opinion very clear many times, this only aggravated Agandur's Right Hand only further and one time the Dark Captain was about to feed the oversized rodent to his experiments, but he managed to stop himself from doing so.

The two Dark Captains sat near the breeding pits, Severia was drinking a cup of tea while the Right Hand was overlooking the experiments as they fought one another, the Right Hand grinned as his experimental werewolf-like creatures. "Ah, my beloved creatures, so bloodthirsty and brutal. Hmm, perhaps I should tone that down a bit," the Right Hand mumbled.

"How about you stop making such monstrosities?" Severia suggested in a disgruntled tone.

"Hmm… no, not going to happen. How about you think of ways to get the Share Energy of Lastation and Leanbox in case the other two fail to obtain them, we need that Share Energy if the Dark Lord is to return."

"Do we really need that Shadow Walker as well?"

Agandur's Right Hand nodded. "The Dark Lord needs a body, and Share Energy is vital if he is to be resurrected. It's the only thing that can do it."

The two of them stopped talking and resumed what they were doing beforehand, yet there was only one thing on their minds. "Tomorrow," both the Right Hand and Severia mumbled.

* * *

 _Fire and smoke filled the dark night sky, the fire swept from building to building while the smoke flowed up into the air, the sounds of yelling and screaming filled the ears of all nearby. This was all that Blanc could see and hear. The CPU of Lowee looked around her and saw corpses and blood all over the ground alongside broken pieces of buildings, it was a complete shock for her, she heard the sounds of more yelling coming from nearby and her legs forced her to check it out despite a voice telling her not to._

What's going on here? This can't be a memory as nothing like this happened in my entire life. I guess it is a bad dream, but why am I dreaming about this?

 _Blanc ran around the corner of a burning building and came across more dead bodies covered in blood, the CPU grimaced as she gazed at the scene before her, she then quickly looked away and ran forward once more. It didn't take long for Blanc to arrive in what appeared to be the centre of the town, all around here was yet more fire, smoke and bodies, but there was also some strange creatures as well. But her attention was caught by the figure in the centre of the town, she couldn't tell whether it was a male or female but it was clear that this mysterious figure was the cause for the town's destruction. This mysterious figure was wearing a jet black clock along with a hood, either black or brown gloves and boots adorned the hands and feet. The figure was in front of a woman next to what appeared to be her child, she was begging for her life as the mysterious figure stood in front of her while holding a dark coloured sword in the right hand, it was poised to strike the woman and her child._

" _Please, spare us! We haven't done anything wrong! Show us mercy!" the woman pleaded to the mysterious figure, her child gripped on the mother's sleeve and tried to hide behind the mother. Blanc was about to summon her hammer and save them but something happened that made her stop: the mysterious figure spoke._

 _The figure tilted his or her head before glaring at them. "Mercy is for the weak," the figure said before lunging forward with the sword pointing straight at the mother, the blade pierced through the upper chest of the woman before the blade sliced through the flesh and straight into the child. Both of them dropped dead with saddened and frightened expressions._

 _Blanc started to shiver and twitch as she stared at the mysterious figure wiped the blood of the blade onto the clock, her teeth chattered and she was unable to move. Blanc recognised the voice, it belonged to someone close to her. The mysterious figure turned around finally notice Blanc's presence, the figure glared at the CPU of Lowee and sounded annoyed. "What are you doing here, Blanc?" the figure asked her. Blanc knew it, the voice and the eyes gave the figure away._

" _B-B-Brian? What's going on? Why are you doing this?" Blanc asked as she stammered._

 _The mysterious figure – Brian – walked slowly towards her as his sword was raised over his right shoulder. "I'm doing this because it needs to be done."_

" _But why?!"_

" _Because this is my destiny. This is what I was born to do. Hatred is what feeds me to such extents, it is a part of my bloodline."_

 _As he approached Blanc the Lowean CPU tried to move but found herself unable to do so, she was frozen with fear. This wasn't the same Brian she knew and loved, this Brian was different. He was more bloodthirsty, brutal, hateful and showed no mercy, he reeked of death, the ground began to crack apart as Share Energy burst forth from the cracks. As he walked slowly towards Blanc his eyes glowed bright blue and Share Energy flared all around his body, it looked as if a bright blue fire was all over his body as it flowed in the apparent wind like a flame from a candle. A snarl formed on his face as he stopped in front of the Lowean CPU, the tip of his blade was up against her upper chest and his left hand rested on her right shoulder. Blanc tried to speak but her words were mumbled together and no coherent words came out._

" _Wh-What are you doing?" Blanc asked as she finally got her words right, her voice filled with dread._

" _I'm doing this world a favour, I'm ending the scum that brought my race to its knees, I'm destroying the false divines who purged my people in ages passed and now I'm returning the favour by wiping out every single one of you CPU!"_

 _Brian then plunged his sword straight into Blanc's upper chest, the blade pierced through the flesh and bones before sticking out of her back. Blood flowed down from the mortal wounds as tears ran down her cheeks, as she tried to speak blood started to come out of her mouth and her vision darkened. When Brian pulled his blade out of Blanc's body she fell to the ground and laid still as a boneless fish, as her eyes closed she said only one word._

" _Brian."_

* * *

"Brian," mumbled Blanc in her sleep.

The Lowean CPU was still asleep in Brian's bed, she was alone as Brian had left not long ago to get some breakfast. The CPU of Lowee gripped the bedsheets tightly as her dream entered its last course, Blanc began to cry and gritted her teeth as her nightmare began to end. As soon as that began to happen Brian re-entered his room, he was carrying a plate with some food on it and set it on the desk before turning his attention to Blanc, he then noticed how Blanc was shivering with fright, crying and gripping the bedsheets tightly.

"Blanc? Blanc, are you alright?" Brian asked her as he sat next to her.

He shook her gently to try to wake the Lowean CPU up from whatever nightmare she was having, it took a few minutes but it worked. She woke up and blinked several times before wiping the tears off her face, she then look up and saw Brian looking down at her. "Feeling alright? What's wrong?" Brian asked her.

Much to his surprise Blanc looked at him with frightened eyes and a scared look on her face, she back away from Brian to the other side of the bed as the young man looked surprised. "Hey, what 's wrong?" Brian asked again.

Blanc then stopped her actions and stared at Brian before tears flowed down her face again, she brought her knees to her chin and sighed deeply. "S-Sorry, I… I'm not feeling well," Blanc began to explain.

Brian sighed as he crawled over to her, he then sat next to her and wrapped an arm around her, she snuggled against him and wrapped her arms around his body. He looked straight into her eyes and a small smile formed on his face. "Were you having some sort of nightmare?" Brian asked.

Blanc looked back at him for a moment before looking away, she nodded and tightened her grip around Brian as her head rested against his chest. "Y-Yeah, I did."

"Care to tell me about it? If you don't want to I can respect that."

Blanc sighed and Brian noticed how troubled she looked. "It's alright, I can tell you. It… it involves some pretty dark stuff."

Brian then began to piece together her actions from just before and what she had just said, the young man then sighed as he figured out what the nightmare was. "It was about me, wasn't it?"

Blanc nodded in response wit ha saddened expression. "Yeah. In the nightmare you… you… I-I can't say it." Tears then began to flow from her eyes once more, Brian sighed and patted her head gently.

"It's alright, you don't need to say any more. I've got a good idea about what occurred in that mind of yours.

Brian did have an idea about what Blanc was dreaming about just before he came back into the room, from the way Blanc was acting and how tears flowed down her cheeks it seemed to the young man that he did something so terrible that it made the CPU of Lowee frightened out of her wits. For what seemed like an eternity the two of them sat on the bed in silence with their arms around one another, then the silence was broken when Blanc opened her mouth. "Hey, Brian, would you ever harm me or any of your friends if the chance came?"

"What sort of question is that? Of course I would not harm you, Rom, Ram or anyone else who I consider my friend," replied Brian in a serious tone.

Blanc looked at him for a short while before breaking out in a small smile, she knew that he was being honest. "I can tell you mean it, good." She then gave him a quick kiss on the lips and giggled. "You're blushing again."

Brian was indeed blushing, in response he glanced away and pouted. "I-I can't help it, it is you after all."

This only made Blanc laugh in response to what Brian said, her attention was then caught by the food filled plate on the nearby desk. "What's that?" Blanc asked.

"That? Oh, that's something I found in the kitchen, it's something healthy that I found on the bench. I'll go and get it." Brian then let go of Blanc, got off the bed and fetched the plate. He returned and Blanc's eyes widened and her smile grew bigger as she saw what was on it; the plate was filled with cut up tangerines. Brian noticed the sudden expression and chuckled. "Do you like tangerines?"

Blanc nodded. "I do, they're my favourite fruit." As Brian held the plat in front of her the little goddess picked up one of the cut up tangerines and began to munch on it, the sight was cute to behold and Brian couldn't help but break out in a small smile.

"Damn, you're too cute, Blanc" Brian mumbled. Blanc looked up at him and blushed as she finished the tangerine off.

"Th-Thanks," responded Blanc as she looked away.

Suddenly an idea popped in Brian's head. "Hey, Blanc, are you free tomorrow?"

Blanc nodded. "I am. Did you have something planned?"

"Yeah, d-do you want to go out on a d-d-date tomorrow?" Blanc noticed how Brian stammered when he asked her as well as the shade of red all over his cheeks, she giggled and smiled at him.

"Sure, I'd like that. Do you have an idea on what to do for this date?"

Brian shrugged. "I'll just come up with it on the spot, although a walk around Lastation wouldn't be too bad."

The CPU of Lowee nodded. "Alright then, sounds like a plan."

Their conversation was interrupted when loud knocking came from the closed door, then a voice was heard. "Hey! Open this door already!"

Brian looked over to the door and sighed. "That sounds like Ram, I better open it." The young man walked over to the door and opened it, standing before him was indeed Ram as well as Rom. Ram looked annoyed while Rom just seemed happy to see Brian again.

"Why didn't you invite us to come with you last night?" Ram asked Blanc in an annoyed tone.

"You and Rom needed your sleep," Blanc tried to explain as her younger sister approached her. "Besides, it was a… personal matter to deal with."

Meanwhile Rom stood next to Brian with a small smile on her face, she looked up and gave him a hug while smiling at him. "I missed you, big brother," Rom told him.

"Missed you too, Rom," Brian said as he patted her on the head. The two of them then turned their attention back to Blanc and Ram, both of them were on the cusp of an argument.

"Why didn't you bring us along, dummy?!" Ram asked in her annoyed tone.

"Because it didn't involve you, now stop whining already!" Blanc replied in a more than pissed off voice.

"And why is that?"

"I already told you, you weren't involved in it, now shut up."

"Dummy."

Blanc's glare turned into her trademark red eye glare act, then a snarl formed across her face and she bared her clenched teeth at her younger sister. "You little brat!"

Ram then stuck her tongue out at Blanc before laughing as she stole the remaining tangerines away from her older sister, she then ran out of Brian's room and out of their sight, all they could hear was Ram laughing. "Try and catch me!"

Blanc yelled in frustration before transforming into White Heart, she then took off after Ram as she hurled threats and angry words at the young Candidate, this left Brian and Rom behind in the room, at least for a few seconds. It didn't take long for White Heart to run back in the room and quickly lock lips with the young man for a second, as she ran back out into the hallway Brian saw the cheeky grin on her face as well as a small tinge of red in her cheeks. Brian smiled and blushed away while Rom looked up at the young man with a questioning expression.

"Um, are you and big sis a couple?" Rom asked, Brian could tell that she desperately wanted to know.

"Yeah, guess you could say that," Brian replied.

The young man bore witness to one of the biggest smiles he had ever seen break out across Rom's face, the young Candidate then latched herself onto Brian in a tight hug. This was something that he wasn't expecting and so the young man collapsed onto the bed with Rom lying on top of him with her arms around him. The Candidate looked up at him with a smile as she crawled up him until she was positioned on his chest.

"I'm really happy for you. Does this mean that you'll be me and Ram's real big brother?"

Brian sighed and shook his head. "How do you even manage to think of these things? No, it isn't like that, Rom."

Rom seemed a bit disappointed. "When will you be a real big brother?"

"We only just started our relationship, we can't go into anything that specific." Brian glanced away as he blushed, this only caused Rom to giggle. The young Candidate then wrapped her arms around his and planted her head against his chest, a happy smile was plastered across her face. The two of them could hear the angry yells of White Heart, the teasing words of Ram and what sounded like Noire, Uni and Kei as well, it was enough for Brian to break out in a chuckle. There was only one thing on his mind as he patted Rom. "Tomorrow."

* * *

After Angel was introduced to his real parents the group spent the night at his parent's house, for the rest of the day and some of the night Wraith and Angel's father were forced to work in the rice fields due to the two men agreeing with one another that Angel's mother was utterly scary. It was something that they regretted. Once dawn broke out across Gamindustri Angel soon discovered his father and Wraith sleeping against the outside house wall, the two were then woken up by his mother who made them come back inside for breakfast.

The inside of the house was somewhat small compared to the other homesteads in Leanbox City, there was only five rooms in the entire house, one had the kitchen and living room, two bedrooms, a bathroom and a small storage room filled with all manner of objects both big and small. Angel, his parent's Plutia, Neptune, Nepgear, Vert, IF, Compa, Victor and Wraith sat and stood around the kitchen and the living room, a few were holding plates filled with fresh grilled food while others were either playing games on the TV – like Angel, Plutia, Vert and Neptune – or were standing around talking to each other – such as IF and Victor.

As Angel blasted zombies with his character he quickly glanced over at Victor and IF, to his surprise he saw Victor directing IF's hands all over the place, IF's hands were held in front of her and the palms were poised towards the wall and a serious expression was on her face. Victor appeared to be saying something to her yet Angel could not hear what he was saying, from what IF was doing it appeared to be instructions. Angel then glanced over at Compa who was sitting on a chair near him.

"Hey, Compa, what are those two up to?" Angel asked Compa without taking his eyes of the screen, his fingers and thumbs thrashing the buttons on the controller in his hands.

"Oh nothing much, Victor is getting IF ready to learn wind magic," Compa replied after scoffing down some of her breakfast.

"Shouldn't they do that outside then?"

Compa shrugged. "I don't know, but I'm sure Victor knows what he's doing."

Angel raised an eyebrow before returning his full attention to the TV in front of him, he then glanced to his left and saw Plutia concentrating fully on the game that they were playing, the tip of her tongue stuck out of her mouth and she glared at the screen. It was too cute for Angel to behold, the young sadist freed his left hand from his controller and patted Plutia on the head gently, his fingers became intertwined with her hair. Plutia giggled and one of her hands grabbed his, she then looked up at him with a smile.

"Um, Angie, are you free tomorrow?" she asked him.

"Yeah, I am. Do you have something in mind?" replied Angel as his focus was set fully on her.

Plutia nodded. "How about we go on a date tomorrow? Would you like that?"

Angel nodded. "I'd like that, Plutia. But where is the date going to take place?"

"Hmm… how about we just walk around Leanbox? Anything simple sounds nice."

Angel put an arm around Plutia and patted her again, she snuggled close to him and the two seemed to have forgotten about the game they were playing, that was until Neptune interrupted them. "Hey! You two stop being all lovey-dovey and start killing these zombies!" yelled Neptune.

Both Angel and Plutia became flustered and quickly returned back to the game, Angel's father and Wraith barely held their laughter back while Angel's mother just smiled at her son. As Angel looked back at the TV screen there was only one thing on his mind. "Tomorrow," Angel mumbled to himself.

* * *

 **A/N: No Valentine special I'm afraid, didn't feel right for what's going to happen next, yet this chapter wasn't as long as I wanted to be but I guess it's merely a prologue of what's to come. Although I felt pretty bad writing about what happened in Blanc's nightmare but I thought it was needed, it served a purpose. Can you guess it? Now the scene is set for utter chaos. What will happen to the team? Will they win the battle to come or fall and shall darkness reign over Gamindustri? All shall be revealed eventually. The next four chapters will take a while to finish so I cannot say when they will be completed, just stay tuned. Have a good day readers.**


	48. Destruction Begins

**Chapter 47: Destruction Begins**

A day had passed since Angel and Plutia agreed to go out on a date, the very next day the group left Angel's parent's house after staying there for a second time and headed back for the Basilicom, strangely enough Wraith travelled with them back to the Leanbox Basilicom. No one was sure why he was going back with them but there was no complaints from anyone, it just gave Angel the excuse to talk to the thousand year old man. As the group walked down the road into Leanbox City Angel and Plutia got closer to Wraith and the young sadist looked up to talk to him. The former Oracle glanced at the two of them and despite the scarf around most of his face Angel could tell he was smiling.

"Is there something you needed, Angel?" Wraith asked.

"I'm curious about something is all. What were your adventures like during the time you travelled across dimensions," explained Angel as they continued to walk.

"Heh, you're the first person in a long time to ask me a question like that."

"Really? Who was the first?"

"Cyan Heart, also known as the CPU of Chaos or by her human name: Rei Ryghts. Then there were the former CPUs of Planeptune, Lastation, Leanbox and Lowee, those four were always asking me about my life. Then there was Uriel, he is – or was – an emperor from the dimension where the Dark Captains came from, a rather… odd person but he was always asking me about my journeys."

Plutia smiled and seemed rather excited. "Wow, you know a lot of people."

Wraith nodded. "That I do. So then, what do you want to know?"

"Hmm, have you visited any parallel version of this dimension?" Angel asked Wraith.

"I sure have, there must be hundreds of parallel version of the Hyperdimension. Those parallel worlds are filled with all manner of heroes and villains, many of which I have seen. I have seen APLs, GPUs, Guardians, Spawns, Archangels and Diabloes, a large variety of female and male CPUs, soldiers from parallel versions of Earth, I've also seen Gods, certain CPUs getting trapped on Earth and I have seen them forced to live with humans. Overall it has been… amusing to say the least."

Angel found what Wraith said to be interesting, he had considered the possibility of parallel worlds after meeting Plutia for the first time, now Wraith had confirmed his thoughts. "That's pretty cool! What's it like to travel dimensions?"

"Hmm, how should I put it? If anything I would say that travelling between dimensions feels… weird at times. Sometimes you might get a stomach ache, at other times you might get a headache or perhaps even nausea. Sometimes all three at once. But after you travel dimensions for hundreds of years it merely becomes nothing."

"Huh, odd indeed."

"Um, why are you called Wraith anyway?" Plutia asked the hooded man.

"Well, I never called myself that, in fact you could say that it is a recent name – if by recent you mean at least a decade or more. Severia the Stoic, one of the four Dark Captains, was the one to name me that after our second encounter."

"Were you called anything else? What did you call yourself?"

Wraith glanced away and looked towards the sky before looking back at the two sadists. "I never really had a name that I called myself by, though I did have a name… once anyway. Wraith isn't a name, it's a title, in fact all of my supposed names are merely titles, it's almost hard to keep track of the number of titles I received of the last thousand years."

"What else were you called?"

"Too many to remember, but there are a few that I do remember well. I was called The Oracle, The Necromancer, the Destroyer of Worlds, even… er, on second thought I shouldn't name that one."

"Hmm? Name which one?"

"Don't mind that, it isn't an important title anyway."

Angel and Plutia eyed Wraith with suspicion for a moment before they shrugged and let the matter drop, instead Angel had another question. "Wraith, why do you have a Welsh accent?" Angel asked the tall man.

Wraith merely shrugged in response. "I don't really know either, guess it just happened randomly."

This was a fair reply for Angel and Plutia, the walk then continued in silence. That was until Neptune slowed down, got behind Wraith and jumped onto his back, her arms wrapped themselves around his neck and the thousand year old man almost fell back in surprise. "Oi, the hell do you think you're doing, Purple Heart?!" Wraith yelled.

"Ah no need for formalities," Neptune told Wraith.

"Same here," Vert said as she got close to them.

"Yeah, you don't need to be that formal with us," Nepgear told the tall man with a bright smile.

"Very well then, let me ask again. Neptune, why are you trying to get a piggyback from me?" Wraith asked.

"Why not?" Neptune replied with a cheeky grin.

"No, not going to happen you pudding junkie."

"Aw c'mon, don't leave me hanging. Pretty please with pudding on top?" Neptune got close to Wraith's face, her eyes wide open and a smile on her face.

Eventually after a moment of staring at each other Wraith sighed and gave in. "Fine, just this once, but don't expect such niceties from me again."

Neptune laughed and got herself comfortable on Wraith's back as he put his arms underneath the energetic goddess to keep her stable, Nepgear giggled and strode to keep up with the two of them, Vert chuckled at the sight, Compa giggled while IF and Victor laughed out loud as the scene played out, Wraith grumbled in annoyance but Neptune didn't seem to care that much. Plutia looked at Angel with a smile, she appeared to be rather sleepy and Angel guess what she wanted. "Hey, Angie, can you give me a piggyback? I'm getting sleeeepy," Plutia asked the young sadist.

Angel nodded. "Sure thing. Hop on."

Plutia clapped her hands and chuckled before climbing onto Angel's back, the young man put his arms underneath her to keep her still, then they continued to walk into Leanbox. As the Leanbox Basilicom came into view Angel heard the soft and quiet snoring sounds from Plutia, her arms were loose around his neck and her head was positioned near his left ear, the soft sounds that came from her mouth sounded like purring music to Angel's ears. To him Plutia was just too damn adorable, he could hardly believe that this girl was the one who fell in love with him, the young sadist had no complaints about it though.

However, their relationship had progressed further than he realised, now Plutia wanted to get in his pants whenever she transformed into HDD, but every time either one of them tried to make a move they were always interrupted. First was Nepgear back in the Basilicom, then it was Angel's father during the first night at his parent's house, finally on the second night Wraith was the one to accidentally interrupt them, Iris Heart had had enough and took the unfortunate thousand year old man outside where he was thrashed by her. The only dignity he had left during that night was that the sadistic goddess let him wear what remained of his armour, clothes and his scarf, although she did take a good look at the top half of his face. This event didn't seem to make Wraith too afraid of Plutia, yet he remained cautious nonetheless.

As this went on Vert looked over to her right and watched as IF and Victor talk to one another, it seemed that both were pretty nervous around each other despite the simple training IF went through with the wind mage. The voluptuous goddess saw IF as a little sister, just like Nepgear whenever she managed to get the Candidate away from Neptune, so there was some sort of motherly affection that Vert had towards the Guild agent. To her it was easy to see that both IF and Victor had feelings for each other but both were too afraid to voice it, unless something or someone was to push those feelings out into the open. Vert smirked at the thought.

 _I think it is my time to shine, time to help Iffy and Victor with the soon to be love life. Hehehehehe. First is my dear Iffy._

The blonde goddess approached IF and lightly tapped her on the shoulder. "Excuse me, my dear Iffy, but may I borrow you for a moment?"

IF appeared surprised at first but then smiled. "Sure thing, Lady Vert. I won't be long, Victor."

Victor nodded. "I know, have fun with whatever is going on."

IF and Vert took off and walked several feet away from the rest of the group, as they walked together IF looked up at Vert with a curious face. "Alright, what's going on?" the agent asked.

Vert had a rather big smile adorning her face as she stared back at IF. "Tell me, how long have you had a crush on Victor?"

IF took a moment to process that through her mind, she then looked shocked as her face turned red. "Wh-Wh-Wh-What are you t-t-talking about?! I-I-I-I don't have a crush on Victor! That would be ridiculous." IF's speech was filled with stammers and she hardly took a moment to breathe.

"It isn't nice to lie, Iffy, plus it is quite obvious that you have those kind of feelings for him."

The Guild agent tried to come up with a retort but failed, instead she tried to speak but all that came out was mindless blabber. Eventually IF regained her posture and speech. "W-W-Was it that easy to tell?"

Vert nodded. "Very obvious, I'm sure everyone knows your 'secret'."

"I'm going to die of embarrassment!" IF wailed as her face turned completely red.

Vert giggled and wrapped an arm around the Guild agent. "Don't worry about it, I will support you, as is everyone else as well."

IF looked at Vert, her face still red. "Y-You're serious?"

The blonde goddess nodded. "I am completely sure, in fact I could even help you in achieving your goal of claiming Victor's heart."

The Guild agent looked utterly embarrassed but nonetheless was grateful for Vert's offer of assistance. "Thanks, Lady Vert, but how can you help anyway?"

Vert chuckled which made IF feel rather worried for herself and for Victor. "Don't worry, Iffy, I'm merely going to talk to him and figure out how he feels for you. However, you should ask him out when you have the chance."

"Maybe, but I don't think I can do it."

"I am perfectly sure you can do it, there is a high chance that Victor would accept your feelings."

IF looked at Vert with hopeful eyes. "Are you sure about that? Do you really think he would accept my feelings towards him?"

The goddess nodded. "Utterly sure. Just give me a bit of time with him so I can help with this endeavour."

IF then glanced away with a small smile and a tinge of red in her cheeks. "Thank you, Lady Vert."

"My pleasure."

* * *

The group arrived at the Basilicom and entered the huge palace-like building, inside they were met by Chika who was more than overly excited to see Vert again. The green haired Oracle ran towards the busty goddess and tried to catch her in a hug and possibly get her head in her massive bosom, but this was foiled when Vert turned around to speak to speak to the rest of the group. This resulted in Chika crashing against Vert's back before falling to the ground, she began to whimper and started her crying act, yet Vert either didn't notice it or decided to ignore it.

"Now then, I will be playing Four Goddesses Online, I heard that there was a raid occurring today in the early part of the afternoon, I must get ready for it," Vert told everyone. "Care to join me, Angel?"

"Give me a sec," Angel replied, he then looked over at Plutia. "When do you want to have out date? I really want to play Four Goddesses Online but I also don't want to abandon our date plans."

Plutia looked back and smiled as usual. "How about we play the game first then go on the date afterwards? I wouldn't mind that."

Angel nodded to confirm the idea before looking back at Vert. "Alright then, I'll play the online game for a while, but only if Plutia gets to join it."

The blonde goddess giggled. "But of course, I will be more than happy to include your beloved Plutia in our gaming session."

Plutia blushed and chuckled as she was called Angel's beloved, Neptune giggled away as she got off Wraith's back. "Embarrassed are you, my dear Plutie?" Neptune asked with a cheerful yet playful tone.

"Don't embarrass me, Neppy," Plutia said.

Nepgear chuckled before looking at Wraith, when she did glance at the thousand year old man she noticed how he looked rather suspicious and tense, he would turn his head around here and there to look around the area. Feeling slightly concerned the CPU Candidate of Planeptune approached him in an attempt to figure out what was going on with him. "Um, excuse me, Wraith, is there something wrong?" Nepgear ask him.

Wraith stopped looking around and stared at Nepgear. "What? No, nothing. Nothing at all."

"Are you sure? You seem troubled is all."

Wraith then shook his head. "Don't worry about me."

"Um… alright then, if you say so." Nepgear then walked off alongside Compa and Neptune to the kitchen while Vert, Angel and Plutia walked towards the gaming room, meanwhile IF stood around Victor whilst looking completely nervous around him. Vert then stopped walking and looked back at Victor, a grin was on her face as she eyed the young man.

"Excuse me, Victor, but may I borrow you for a short moment?" Vert asked him.

The wind mage looked at the busty goddess with a confused expression. "Er, what is it, Lady Vert?"

"Oh nothing much, just a few words is all."

IF looked at the two of them and realised what Vert wanted to talk to Victor about, the wind mage merely shrugged though. "Alright then, I can spare some time."

"Good. Angel, Plutia, you two can start playing without me, I won't be long."

The two sadistic masochists nodded before walking away to set the game up, meanwhile Wraith eyed Vert and Victor as they walked off away from everybody else after they followed the two sadomasochists, thus leaving Wraith alone with the one person he didn't want to be with: Chika. The scantly clad Oracle got up off the ground, dusted herself off before making a pouting face and was about to wander away back to her office when she only then noticed Wraith. Chika looked rather shocked and pointed a finger accusingly at him.

"Who are you?! Why are you here?! Oh no, don't tell me you're after Vert's body! You are aren't you?!" Chika accused Wraith.

The thousand year old man did not seem to take this kindly, he walked calmly up to Chika as his eyes flared intensely, causing the Oracle to back off a bit. He raised his right hand and directed it towards Chika's head, the Oracle continued to back away until her back hit the wall, she was left with nowhere to run. As Chika awaited her fate she closed her eyes, yet something happened which she didn't expect: Wraith flicked her forehead gently. She looked at him with a confused expression and saw that the intensity in his eyes had died down, leaving only the subtle glowing of the blue, red and dark purple that flowed through his eyes.

"You shouldn't jump to conclusions so quickly," Wraith informed Chika as he backed off. "Someone could get hurt real bad. You were lucky that I was in a partially alright mood just now."

"Y-You mean that if you weren't then I could have been seriously hurt?" Chika asked.

"No. I might be a violent and unpredictable person but I would never hurt someone that works for a CPU, it just wouldn't feel right to me. Now pardon me." Wraith then turned around and started to leave, but before he did he looked back at the Oracle. "Oh, one last thing you should know: not all guys are bad."

Chika blushed a little as she looked at him after he said those last words, then her face soured and she glared at him. "You're trying to flirt with me, aren't you?"

Wraith chuckled and shook his head. "No, not at all. Quite the opposite in fact. Honestly, I don't like you, you're just annoying, obsessive and utterly rude. Anyway, I best be off."

As Chika pouted and Wraith began to walk away the sounds of rumbling came from all around them, Wraith quickly looked around the place and glared at the walls and floor. Suddenly, from all sides, large explosions occurred. The walls cracked apart and fell to the ground as the explosives made their mark, multiple bombs went off all across the Basilicom, it was indeed something similar to a terrorist bombing. Chika was sent hurdling across the other side of the place when another explosion occurred near her, a piece of the wall was blasted off and was sent crashing towards her, the green haired Oracle was staring death in the face, but it never came. Moments passed and the explosions stopped yet the broken piece of wall didn't land on Chika, she looked up and saw Wraith holding the broken wall.

"Wh...What?" Chika tried to say. Yet she was at a loss for words.

"Try and stay out of trouble, will you?" Wraith asked with a cheeky tone, he then threw the wall away and help the Oracle onto her feet.

As Chika got back onto her feet she glanced around the place and saw that it was in ruins, a large part of the front entrance had caved in and the ceiling had splintered apart, thus revealing several of the floors above. The Oracle noticed that a part of the outfit had been torn up which revealed pats of her belly and a bit of cleavage, Wraith seemed to have taken more damage from the explosions though. His black coat had several burn marks and a part of it had been completely burned away, this revealed much of the leather and chain mail armour that he wore underneath, his hood was thrown back and his scarf was loosely hanging down his face, this gave Chika a somewhat clouded view of his face. It was the first time anyone had seen a portion of Wraith's face, and from what the Oracle could see she thought she had seen him before, at least a younger version of himself.

Wraith quickly pulled his scarf back over his mouth, and straightened his back before speaking. "I'm guessing this happen all across the Basilicom, we better check to see if anyone survived."

Chika nodded but as soon as the two of them were about to move the sounds of a heavily booted person was heard, then the rubble at the entrance was blasted apart, standing in the large doorway was Kharzark the Interrogator and Arfoire, Kharzark's left hand was engulfed in fire. The two of them entered the Basilicom and walked towards them. "Arfoire, keep them busy while I get the Share Energy," the Interrogator told her.

"With pleasure," Arfoire responded as she summoned her spear and charged straight into combat, her first target was Wraith.

The thousand year old man materialised his ghostsword and began to parry blow after blow while trying to get a hit in, meanwhile Kharzark strode forth down the hallway towards the Sharicite room, that was until Chika ran in front of him and held a spear in front of her, a vicious look was on her face as she glared at the Dark Captain. "You will stay away from the Sharicite, or else!"

Kharzark tilted his head and chuckled. "Or else what, may I dare ask?"

"Or else you're dead!"

Kharzark then began to laugh loudly as his left hand moved upwards until the palm was pointing directly towards Chika, the fire around his hand began to flare up even brighter. "You are a brave person, aren't you? Too bad I have to kill you. **Fireball!** "

The fireball, which exploded on impact, crashed into Chika's spear, this sent the busty Oracle flying down the corridor until she crashed into the wall, her outfit was burned including part of her hair, the Oracle was knocked out by the blast. Wraith parried an incoming blow before looking over at Chika, he growled as he sidestepped Arfoire before swinging his sword across her right arm. The witch was inflicted an almost deadly blow as the ghostly blade almost amputated her arm, she stepped back and grimaced as blood flowed from the deep wound. That was when they both heard a painful screech coming from several floors above.

Arfoire grinned as she stared at Wraith. "It seems that Kharzark got the Share Energy we needed, now that CPU of this damn nation is going to die!" A dark ball full of energy formed in her left hand, the ball then flew up into what was left of the ceiling and crashed into it, the ruined ceiling came crashing down in top of Wraith and buried him alive in rubble. Kharzark ran up to Arforie and grinned at her work, a Share Energy Container was in his hand and it was glowing bright blue.

"Good work, though I doubt he's dead," Kharzark said to her.

"It doesn't matter, let's get out of here."

As they ran towards the entrance a strong gust of wind blasted into the two of them, sending both in opposite directions. Arfoire crashed outside while Kharzark smashed into a ruined wall, he loked down a hallway to see a man with a brown trench coat and a top hat along with a cane in his right hand, the palm of his left hand was raised and a snarling expression was on his face.

"A wind user, eh?" Kharzark mumbled as he got up. "Interesting, completely interesting indeed."

"From the look of you I'm guessing you use fire, am I right?" Victor asked as he slowly approached his enemy, behind Victor was IF along with Neptune, Compa and Nepgear, all three seemed to have been hit badly by the explosions.

"Kharzark, we've gotta go!" Arfoire yelled.

The fire wizard growled but complied, in an instant fire exploded all over the place as the two villains ran off, then a large creature made up of fire spawned next to Kharzark, which eh and Arfoire mounted and flew away on. The creature appeared to look like some sort of fire serpent with large wings and a tail with a sharp point at the end, its jaws were large and pointy teeth overlapped the lips, it also had a long scaly neck and scrawny legs that had lizard-like feet. As it made its way westward the fiery creature bellowed in a loud, screeching tone which chilled the hearts of everyone nearby. Once the creature, along with Kharzark and Arfoire, were out of hearing range Victor collapsed against a nearby wall and held his right arm tightly, IF panicked and rushed to his side.

"Victor! Are you alright? What's wrong?" the Guild agent asked him.

"I-I'm fine, just got hit by one of those bombs and my right arm hurts real bad. Nothing too serious," Victor replied.

As IF took a look at the wound, which wasn't as bad as she thought it was, Compa went over to Chika and checked her over to see how the Oracle was, fortunately for her she was alive and in a stable condition yet unfit for duty until further notice. Nepgear took the time to get Wraith out of the pile of rubble he was buried under when Angel, Plutia and Vert arrived, the young man had blood flowing down from a head injury while Plutia was carrying Vert on her back. The blonde goddess was out cold and panting deeply, her face was pale and sweat poured down her forehead. As soon as Nepgear fished Wraith out from the rubble, and as Plutia laid Vert against what was left of one of the walls, Cave and several members of the Leanbox army and SMD arrived to secure the area. Cave ran over to the group at saw Vert's and Chika's conditions.

"I presume it was the work of one of the Dark Captains?" Cave asked after looking at them.

Nepgear nodded. "They took us unaware, I didn't know they had planted bombs in and out of the Basilicom."

"It makes sense if you think about it, it's an old military stratagem. 'Cut the head off the snake'. We should have known."

"This is bad, really bad," Compa said in a quiet and sad voice. "This is just like the time when Nep Nep and Nep Jr got their Share Energy taken away, Vert is dying."

Plutia, Neptune and Nepgear started to tear up while Victor sighed in annoyance. "And Brian isn't here to refill the Sharicite, he was the only one able to do that, now Lady Vert is going to die."

Wraith got onto his feet and put his hood over his head again. "No, there is still a way," he told everyone.

IF looked at Wraith with uncertainty. "Are you sure there's another way to refill the Sharicite without Brian? You forget that only Share Energy can replenish it."

"I know, so leave it to me."

Victor eyed Wraith suspiciously as the hooded man began to walk towards the Sharicite room. "Hold up, are you suggesting that the Sharicite of Leanbox can be filled with your power? Are you saying that..."

"You didn't think Brian the Shadow Walker was the only one who could wield Share Energy, did you? I am another who can bend it to my will."

Cave was completely surprised by the news, but she knew that questions would have to wait. "Questions later, we have to save Lady Vert."

Victor wanted to press Wraith for information but knew what needed to be done. "Fine then, but you better answer my questions afterwards, Wraith."

The hooded man nodded and ran towards the Sharicite room, he dodged falling pieces of building parts before entering the actual room itself. The green power symbol was dim and flashed in a dark colour, it was just about empty. Wraith sighed and raised his right hand over the power symbol, everyone watched with anticipation. Wraith placed his hand on the Sharicite and channelled his energy into it, to the surprise of all around him they saw the Sharicite of Leanbox be filled with some sort of red energy which quickly turned into dark purple, then Wraith growled before the Sharicite was filled with the bright blue Share Energy. After this was done the hooded man backed off away from the Sharicite and almost fell to the ground, Angel grabbed him and prevented Wraith from doing so.

"That took a bit more out of me than I thought," Wraith mumbled as he attempted to regain his balance.

Victor walked over to Wraith and stared straight at him. "Alright then, question time before we track down our enemy. Who are you? What are you? And how are you able to use Share Energy?"

"I am merely Wraith, nothing more and nothing less, I am a god who is helping you all so be grateful for that. As for the Share Energy part, well, that's complicated. Suffice to say that I have three different types of Share Energy flowing through me. The first is pure Share Energy, the second is a basic form of Negative Energy and finally there is the most rare type of Energy: Corrupt Energy. In the history of all the dimensions only four people have been able to use all sorts of Share Energy, Brian and myself included."

"Who are the other two?" Nepgear asked.

"Agandur the Dark Lord is another, he can use Corrupt Energy which is like the pure Share Energy, except it corrupts the minds of all those who put their faith in him, that's how the Dark Captains are so brutal and cunning. The fourth person is someone who's name has been lost to history, but he is a founding father if you can call him that."

"Hmm, how are you able to use these types of Share Energy? Why do you have them?" Victor asked, his arms crossed before him and his eyes sternly staring at the hooded man. Nearby they could hear Neptune whining as Compa took a look at the cuts and bruises that could be seen on the pudding obsessed goddess.

"Because I can and I just do. Now, if you will excuse me, I have errands to attend to."

Wraith stood up and walked towards the entrance in a hurried manner, but his path was blocked by Victor who didn't appeared to be satisfied with Wraith's explanations. "You aren't leaving yet, you still haven't answered the questions. Plus what 'errands' do you have to do anyway? Is this a ploy to get out of here without answering the damn questions?"

Wraith looked at Victor sternly, his multicoloured eyes filled with rage and sadness. "I am needed elsewhere, I have to go or else people will die!"

"You better get going then if that's the case," said Cave.

The group got out of the way and watched as Wraith was engulfed in blue, red and dark purple energy, he then began to run in a pace no one had ever seen before, he was gone quickly. As soon as he was gone the group returned to the front entrance and assessed the situation at hand, suddenly painful groans escaped from both Vert and Chika. The two women were starting to wake up, Vert appeared normal and seemed to have recovered quickly from the incident while Chika was covered in bandages, they appeared to be a bit too tight – obviously the work of Compa.

As Vert attempted to stand up she almost collapsed back on the ground, she was helped up by Nepgear until the blonde goddess could regain her balance, as Vert did this she looked around at the state of the place and then saw Chika lying up against the ruined wall in the corridor. "Chika… what happened to you? What happened to the place?" Vert asked, her voice dripped in sadness.

"It was the work of one of the Dark Captains and Arfoire, you only survived thanks to Wraith replenishing the Sharicite with Share Energy," IF explained, she then went on to explain about Wraith's powers before telling the goddess that the enemy had retreated to the west.

Vert was awestruck by the news, then her expression became stern and her eyes were glaring, no one had ever seen Vert this angry before. She then transformed into Green Heart, her angry expression was still plastered on her face as her spear materialised in her right hand. "For this act of aggression they shall know fear and defeat, this means war!" Green Heart shouted in a loud voice.

"Are you sure you can fight, Lady Vert?" Cave asked.

Green Heart nodded. "I can, at least I'm sure I can anyway. I must thank Wraith when I see him again. At any rate, we must move out and give chase to the enemy."

Neptune and Nepgear nodded before transforming into Purple Heart and Purple Sister. "We better get moving then," Purple Heart said.

Green Heart nodded before glancing at Cave. "Cave, can you ready the armed forces for combat?"

"I'll do my best, but I'm guessing that you and the others will be going on ahead before we can muster. If that's the case then good luck," replied Cave.

"I'm coming too," Victor said as he gripped his cane tightly. "I want the chance to fight that fire user."

"If you're going then so am I," IF then said as she stood next to Victor.

"Since I'm a healer it makes sense for me to tag along," Compa interjected as she stood up.

Green Heart let out a slight chuckle. "Very well then, thank you all."

Plutia then smiled in a sadistic way before transforming into Iris Heart, an unnatural aura flowed from her that made everyone – except Angel – freeze with fear. "You can't leave me and Angie behind, that's rude you know. We can't let you hog all the fun," Iris Heart said with a mischievous grin.

"D-Don't worry, Sadie, we weren't going to leave both of you behind," Purple Heart said quickly, everyone else nodded to affirm it. Iris Heart and Angel merely grinned at one another in response.

"Alright then, let's move out people!" Green Heart shouted. "To war! Then I'll be able to get back to that raid I was on before."

As soon as the group prepared to head out Cave picked up Chika to take her to a hospital, meanwhile Angel was stopped by Iris Heart who had a serious expression. "Angie, my dear, swallow this," she said, in her right hand was the gift she gave him a while back: the strange stone.

"Why?" Angel asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Because we need all the strength we can get, you need to get stronger than you ever have before, this stone is the key to it all. So eat it, shove it down that throat of yours."

"I'd rather shove things forcibly down your throat." Angel had a cheeky grin as he said this.

Iris Heart then had a mischievous smirk in response. "I have no doubt about that, but just swallow it already."

Angel decided it was wiser to listen to Iris Heart rather than argue with her, but the strange glowing stone with a power symbol in it was far from edible. With a deep sigh he put the smooth glowing stone in his mouth and swallowed, much to the sadistic goddess's pleasure and amusement. Purple Heart watched the whole scene play out and gritted her teeth, it was the moment of truth. Soon everyone in the room was watching Angel as a sudden burst of bright light enveloped around him, the young man tried to let out a cry but no words came from him, he felt pain in his chest and gut but could not move his arms. Iris Heart looked on with an expression full of regret, that was until everyone saw something in Angel's eyes: power symbols.

"Plutia, did you..." Purple Sister was about to ask when she was interrupted.

"Indeed I did, and it seems to be working," Iris Heart said with a happy smile.

As the light died away everyone saw someone that was similar to Angel yet not so similar, for a start he was taller, more muscular and overall appeared very different. There was no denying it, Angel had been transformed into a CPU. "Well that felt painful," the HDD version of Angel said to Iris Heart. "If I didn't know better I'd say you were trying to kill me. Anyway, what the hell am I now? And why do I sound different too?"

"Um, that's because Plutia turned you into a CPU," IF told him.

"Am I now? Heh, guess that makes me immortal age wise, hell yeah! So what are we waiting for? Let's kill some fucking bastards!"

* * *

 **A/N: Angel is now a CPU, who knows what will happen next with that development, I honestly don't know what Angel's HDD form looks like or much about his personality, I'll think of something though. Updates will take much longer due to me attending university so my timetable for this is going to take a big hit. However, I will be continuing this whenever I can – I have future plans that involve this, thus I might have to shorten some future chapters down a bit, possibly the next three might have to be shortened. On a side note, however, I can confirm that there will be a lemon coming up, most people would want to see a AngelxPlutia lemon so I'll write one. Would you readers want to see lemons containing the other OCs as well? If so let me know and I'll include them in this fanfic. Also regarding my timeline: I have decided to release it when this fanfic is over, this will leave me with more time to get this over with. Anyway, have a good day readers and I will see you next time.**


	49. Showdown at the Zune District

**Chapter 48: Showdown at the Zune District**

Far in the sky all seemed quiet and peaceful, even empty one could say, however, this was soon to be shattered. A bird flew through the air peacefully and past a cloud, suddenly the cloud burst apart and the bird screeched in terror before flying away, what came out of the cloud was a large eagle made up of magical energy which looked like wind magic, on top of its head was Victor, a grim expression was on his face as he directed his magically created beast towards the Zune District. Along with him on the eagle was IF and Compa, flying alongside it was Purple Heart, Purple Sister, Green Heart, Iris Heart and Angel in HDD form. From what information could be gathered from eyewitnesses the fiery serpent that carried Kharzark and Arfoire went west across the sea, the only major island to the west was the Zune District, that name made everyone except Angel, Iris Heart and Victor become depressed and they frowned at the past memories that were made there – despite the good memories that were also made there. Green Heart, Purple Heart, Purple Sister, IF and Compa remembered their past experience on the island with distaste and yet pride.

Victor kneeled down and patted the magically created eagle, causing the beast to make strange yet affectionate noises in return. Behind Victor was IF and Compa, the nurse was holding her skirt down while also holding firmly onto the back of the eagle, IF on the other hand seemed to be more calm about the current situation, in fact she was more impressed by the fact that Victor could create creatures made out of wind magic. This only made the guild agent more interested in learning this type of magic from the top hat wearing man. IF looked over to Victor and saw him gazing out towards the small island in the distance, she carefully walked up to him and placed a hand on his shoulder, causing him to look over and smile.

"Hey there, you feeling alright?" IF asked Victor as her hair blew across her face, causing her to use a hand to move the hair away.

"Yeah, just a bit anxious is all," he replied back while keeping a hand on his top hat. "I barely know what awaits us at the Zune District, but I can guess that it is going to be one hell of a fight. If that's the case then I don't know how long I will be able to keep being a pacifist."

"I know what you mean, we might be forced to kill citizens who had once put their faith in the Goddesses. I have never killed a person before, and I don't know if I'm ready to do that."

"I know what you mean, I had a hard time trying not to kill anyone back during the rescue mission in Lowee, but with the severity of what's occurring now I doubt I'll be able to remain a pacifist for long."

The guild agent smiled and patted his back, a small blush appeared in her cheeks. "Hey, if we survive this do you mind, er… teaching more some more wind magic? We didn't do much about it before."

Victor could tell that there was more on IF's mind than just resuming lessons on how to use wind magic, he guessed – correctly – that this was because of whatever Vert was talking to the guild agent about. He then began to wonder if Vert had told IF something similar to what she said to him, he blushed at the thought. "Uh… sure, yeah we can continue that."

"Hmm? You alright, Victor?"

"I am, no need to worry about me."

As IF smiled one last time at Victor before returning to Compa, who was still trying to keep her skirt from flying up, Purple Heart looked over to her right to see Iris Heart and Angel flying side-by-side. The CPU of Planeptune looked closely at Angel and noticed that there was something odd about his HDD appearance. He wore a black and purple bodysuit from from the neck to the waist down and below to his legs where it met with his armoured boots, blue accents flowed through the design of the bodysuit. Like the other CPUs Angel too had CPU Processor Units, floating around the sides of his head were horns and shoulder armour plates floated above his shoulders, wings similar to Green Heart were behind his back with blue accents running downwards through them with a black metallic colour covering the corners on the top and outer edges. He also had the same eyes along with blueish purple hair similar to Iris Heart, yet it was of a darker colour, no strand of hair covered his eyes but the hair was spiky with a few large strands in middle around the forehead.

However, some reason there appeared to be a wolf-like design to it as well. Mantles of fur appeared to be around his arms, legs and different areas on his bodysuit, his gauntlets had sharp claws where the fingernails would be, his teeth seemed to be more fang-like and his eyes were squinting like a wolf. Something went wrong during the transformation, Purple Heart guessed that the CPU Memory was going to reject Angel and turn him into a monster, it appeared to be in the process of that at least. Angel looked over to Purple Heart and noticed that she was looking at him.

"What is it?" he asked her.

"Oh nothing much," Purple Heart replied.

Angel's HDD form raised an eyebrow before returning his gaze towards the island in the distance, an uncaring expression adorned his face as he stared at the sight of their objective. The Planeptunian CPU had noticed that the HDD form of Angel was much more seclusive in nature than his human form, even when Plutia/Iris Heart was around, he was almost – if not like – a sociopath when in HDD. An idea then formed in her head, the CPU had thought of a name for Angel's HDD form.

"Hey, Angie, I think I've got a name for you," Purple Heart told him.

This caught his attention. "Isn't the name 'Angel' enough for me?"

"Since you're a CPU now I think it's best if you have a name like us whenever you transform. How about… Wolf Heart?"

"Wolf Heart? Why that name?"

"Because you remind me of a wolf stalking its prey, plus you kind of look like one as well."

Iris Heart raised an eyebrow at the remark but seemed to agree with the name. "I think it's quite fine, actually I think it might strike fear into the hearts of our enemies if they hear about that. Don't you agree, Wolfie?"

"Wolfie?! I'd prefer Angie instead if you don't mind. But Wolf Heart… yeah, that kinda does sound imposing and threatening at the same time. Alright then, I'll go by that name."

Both Purple Heart and Iris Heart smiled at the response before turning their gaze towards the island that they were quickly approaching, Angel – now known as Wolf Heart – growled with delight, the sound of the growl was similar to that of a wolf. Purple Sister looked over at Wolf Heart and noticed what her older sister was talking about, he did look like a wolf to some degree. She returned her gaze to the Zune District where she saw something odd, there appeared to be something coming towards them from the island. As Purple Sister gazed at it Wolf Heart growled before slamming against the CPU Candidate, sending her away from what was coming towards her: a missile. Green Heart frowned at glared at the island before them.

"This is going to be tougher than I previously thought," Green Heart grumbled as she gripped her spear tightly.

"Think of it as one of your games," Purple Heart reassuringly told her as she floated next to the busty goddess.

"At least in a game we can re-spawn."

"Nonetheless, let's get on with it."

The CPUs charged as one group with Wolf Heart and Iris Heart at the head while Purple Sister took up the rear, meanwhile Victor sighed deeply before patting the eagle. "Come on, let's get this over with. Charge straight towards those turrets and avoid any incoming missile fire."

The eagle roared before diving straight at the targets, Victor gripped onto the head of the eagle tightly while IF and Compa grabbed a hold of his arms, the wind mage swore that the blood circulation flowing through his arms were being cut off due to the tight grips of their arms around his. As they neared the Zune District the huge number of turrets and soldiers put doubts of victory in Victor's heart, the only way he could see a path for victory was to defeat the leader – or leaders – and hopefully destroy the island's defences, easier said than done. As the wind mage looked up, however, he saw the fire serpent in the sky coming towards them, atop the fiery beast was none other than Kharzark himself, the overall leader of the forces in the Zune District.

"IF, Compa, this is going to get bloody pretty soon, you two better get down there and assist the others while I fight this guy," Victor instructed them.

"No, I'm going to be fighting alongside you!" IF told him sternly.

"Tch, fine then, but you better keep yourself safe, I'd hate myself if I saw you die. Compa, you better get down there and help."

Compa nodded nervously as Victor looked over the eagle and gazed downward towards Purple Heart. "Lady Neptune! Get Compa and bring her with you, things are going to get ugly up here!"

Purple Heart nodded before flying up to them, she took Compa into her arms and smiled at Victor and IF. "You two better stay alive," the purple goddess told them before leaving to join the ground assault.

IF looked up and saw Kharzark and his fire serpent near them, he seemed ready to kill as fire engulfed his left hand and his sword arm was raised in the air. "Victor, can we really defeat him?" IF asked the wind mage.

"We can only do our best, besides, fire can never defeat wind." Victor stood up and faced Kharzark face-to-face, the top hat wearing man grinned as his hands became engulfed in wind magic, both stared at each other before raising their hands and unleashed the destructive power of their elemental magic powers.

* * *

The ground assault went better than expected, mainly thanks to Wolf Heart and Iris Heart for clearing out some of the turrets, along with some unfortunate Dark Followers who happened to get in Wolf Heart's way. As the wolf-like CPU cleaned off the blood from his larger two handed sword, it was coloured in black with blue lines running down the blade which glowed brightly. After cleaning the blade Wolf Heart looked up over a few boulders and assessed the situation at hand. A small part of the island had already been captured by the CPUs during the initial ground assault while the rest of the Zune District was crawling with soldiers, turrets and mines. He glanced over to his right and saw Green Heart along with Purple Heart, Purple Sister and Compa together, the four of them were assaulting a small band of Dark Followers who had taken up position around a small cliff with a few automatic turrets, from the look of it the three CPUs were not killing their opponents which confused Wolf Heart.

A gentle tap to his shoulder turned the wolf-like CPU's attention to his left, there he saw Iris Heart looking at him with a serious expression. "Angie, we should charge straight ahead towards the factory, it has a nice vantage point over there," Iris Heart told him as an explosion went off nearby.

"I suppose so. Say, are you going to be killing any of these assholes?" Wolf Heart asked.

"Only if they do try to kill any of use, don't you worry, deary." She then patted him on the head and smiled seductively. "If we do get out of this alive I want to try something with you, if you don't mind. Hopefully we won't get interrupted." The dominatrix then rubbed her hand across his legs towards his crotch, stopping only when her hand was about to touch his manhood, Iris Heart licked her lips as she stared at him.

"Oh wait till you see what I've got in store for you," Wolf Heart said as he grabbed her chin and locked lips with the sadistic goddess, his tongue explored her mouth to the fullest as she did the same. They pulled back with lustful expressions on their faces. "Come on, we've got an enemy to destroy. **Darkside!** " The corrupting black aura enveloped around Wolf Heart once more.

Iris Heart nodded before the two of them sprang over the rocky formation and straight towards unfortunate Dark Followers who manned the turrets, Wolf Heart was the first to reach a few of the turrets – they soon wished that they were facing against Iris Heart instead. While Iris Heart would toy and torture her prey this did not happen with Wolf Heart, while he turned into a sociopath when initially transformed he became a complete psychopath when in battle, in fact he rivalled Lothar the Bloodthirsty when it came to matters of bloodthirsty combat. The wolf-like CPU tore through his enemies – literally – and watched as their severed limbs and heads fell to the ground, an unusual grin was on his face as this occurred. Strangely enough Iris Heart found Wolf Heart's expression to be arousing, she began to drool at the sight after the dominatrix thrashed two Dark Followers within an inch of their lives with her whip.

As this occurred there was much progress nearby, Green Hear charged straight into a small group of enemy soldiers and began to swing her spear around elegantly, smashing the tall and deadly weapon against her foes left, right and centre. Some didn't put up much of a fight due to them staring at the oversized breasts that Green Heart had, but the death glare that was on her face was enough for them to try and fight. After using her spear to pick up one of the Dark Followers by the belt she threw the unfortunate soldier across the rocky ground where they crashed against a turret, it fell to the ground on top of a minefield, what happened next caused a chain reaction. The explosion was in range of the other mines which too exploded since they were nearby, as the explosions neared the CPUs they quickly tried to get out of the way, but one person was not quick enough.

Compa wasn't quick enough to get out of the blast range, she tried to run but was unable to get out of the zone, the nurse-in-training fell over onto the ground face first and awaited her fate. The blast came but she never felt anything hit her, the nurse looked up and saw Purple Heart standing over her with her back facing the explosion, a pained expression was on her face. "Hey, you alright there, Compa?" Purple Heart asked before gritting her teeth in pain.

"Nep Nep… why? Why did you save me like that?" Compa asked.

"You're my friend, of course I would risk my life to save yours."

Purple Heart then kneeled over and panted for air, Compa looked at her friend's back and saw how the bodysuit was scorched and some skin was showing, pieces of shrapnel were sticking out of her back and blood flowed from the wounds. "Nep Nep, you need medical attention, and quickly," Compa told her as she tried to keep back the tears.

"Later, first we need to defeat the enemy. Victor and IF are dealing with the Dark Captain who uses fire magic, that Arbore must be nearby somewhere close by, we have to take her down as fast as possible."

"Um, she's called Arfoire, but I get what you're saying. Let me deal with your wounds first though."

"Neptune! Compa! Are you two alright?" Purple Sister asked as she and Green Heart flew back to them while evading the long range attacks of their enemy.

"Yeah, no need to worry about us," Purple Heart replied as her and Compa got behind cover.

Purple Sister and Green Heart looked on in shock as they saw Compa pick out shrapnel out of Purple Heart's back. "Can you still fight?" Green Heart asked with concern in her tone.

"Yes, I think I can still fight on, it isn't like we have much choice at this point anyway," Purple Heart replied as she held back the painful tone as she grimaced.

As Compa patched up the CPU of Planeptune a small band of Dark Followers – numbering five in total – covered in coats, armour pieces and helmets made of steel pounced on the group, they carried rifles, pistols, swords, shields and spears. They sprung up from the rocky hill near the group and charged into combat. Green Heart parried the blows of two Dark Followers with her spear before sidestepping them, the busty goddess then brought her spear smashing into the heads of her opponents which sent them flying, Quickly afterwards Green Heart then aimed her spear towards her attackers.

" **Sylhet Spear!** " Green Heart shouted as a green beam shaped like a spear came from the spear head, the attack landed on her opponents, defeating them and sending them into a state of unconsciousness.

The other three Dark Followers attacked Purple Sister who was having a hard time fighting the three of them at once, she slashed her blade against the shield of one Dark Follower who backed off due to the impact, one his his comrades backed him up by aiming his rifle at the Candidate and fired several rounds at her, fortunately for her she dodged them all by flying through the air. The purple haired Candidate then aimed her weapon at the rifle wielding Dark Follower and attacked.

" **M.P.B.L!** " Purple Sister shouted, the attack wounded her foe and sent her smashing against the rocky ground.

The Candidate then swung her blade to block an incoming attack, this left her wide open however. As one of the enemy soldiers charged forth with her blade poised towards the Candidate a sudden blow to her head knocked her unconscious, the blow came from Green Heart who had swung her spear against the head of the Dark Follower. The rest of the group was easily dealt with once Purple Heart got back on her feet with her sword in her hands. No one was killed despite the amount of blood that was shed. Afterwards Purple Sister knelt on the ground and panted for air.

"Phew, that was intense," the Candidate of Planeptune said. "Is everyone alright?"

Green Heart nodded. "Indeed I am, in fact I'm ready to continue. How about you, Neptune?"

Purple Heart grinned. "I sure am. Let's head to that nearby factory, despite it being the most heavily defended area on this island it does give us some good cover and could also be an excellent spot to view the area."

"Please Nep Nep, don't push yourself too much," Compa told the CPU. "If you do then your wounds will reopen."

Purple Heart smiled at the nurse before patting her on the back. "Don't need to worry about me, just focus on surviving this. Anyway, let's get moving."

"Vert! Behind you!" Purple Sister shouted.

The CPU of Leanbox was quick to respond, she turned around and brought her spear horizontally in front of her, this blocked an incoming blow from the second-in-command of the Dark Followers in the Zune District: Arfoire. The gothic witch had a malicious expression as she gritted her teeth, behind her were three Dark Followers with hateful looks. "Time to die, Goddesses!" Arfoire yelled as she stepped back and lunged forward at Green Heart once more after transforming into something similar to HDD.

The two spear wielders battled each other to a deadlock as they fought in the air above, meanwhile the CPUs of Planeptune and Compa fought against the Dark Followers arrayed against them. Despite her wounds Purple Heart was still agile and proved to be more than a capable fighter, the purple goddess yelled as she charged straight at the three Dark Followers. " **Cross Combination!** "

The fury of Purple Heart's slash attacks was dangerous enough, but coupled together with Purple Sister's own attacks there wasn't much hope for the Dark Followers. One of them tried to parry an oncoming blow from Purple Heart only to get attacked from behind by Purple Sister, a savage blow to the back followed by a punch to the head sent the Dark Follower skidding against the rocky surface and face first into a ruined turret. The CPUs had managed to not get anyone killed, which was the exact opposite of what Wolf Heart was doing. Meanwhile Green Heart was about to gain the upper hand against Arfoire before she began to run out of energy, she floated in the air and panted deeply.

 _Damn it, I'm still recovering from the loss and gain of the Share Energy before all this. Hell, I'm surprised that I even managed to make it this far without passing out, I don't think I can last much longer._

Arfoire grinned malevolently as a ball of dark energy formed in her left hand as the spear held in her right hand was pointed towards the green haired goddess, the gothic witch then threw the dark energy ball straight towards Compa who happened to be patching up a bullet wound on Purple Sister's right arm. "Compa!" Green Heart yelled.

The busty nurse looked up and was almost unable to dodge the attack, the dark energy ball crashed in front of her and sent the nurse flying across the rocky ground until she skidded to a stop against a pile of boulders. Compa was covered in scratches all over her legs and arms, parts of her clothing were shredded and blood began to flow from the small wounds, the nurse groaned in pain as she tried to get back onto her feet. Arfoire was nonetheless pleased with the result despite being unable to kill Compa, it had given the gothic witch an advantage: Green Heart had focused her attention at Compa instead of the battle at hand.

"Foolish idiot! You're wide open to a killer blow!" Arfoire shouted as she charged forward, her spear poised to inflict a killer blow.

Green Heart had little time to try to deflect the incoming attack or even attempt to dodge it, instead she did the only thing she could do: take the blow head on. The green goddess managed to move a bit but Arfoire's spear still found its mark as the weapon pierced through Green Heart's flesh, the spear stabbed through the area around the waist and gut, the busty goddess grimaced in pain and tried but failed to fight back. Arfoire grinned and swung her spear around, sending Green Heart flying to the ground. The CPU of Leanbox crashed on the ground and skidded for a few seconds before stopping, she reverted back into human form and the others watched in horror as Vert slipped into a state of unconsciousness, blood flowed from her deep wound and stained the grounf under her.

Compa ran towards Vert while Purple Heart took to the air and engaged Arfoire in combat, the purple goddess was filled with rage. " **Critical E** **dge!** " Purple Heart shouted as she sliced away at Arfoire.

"Tch, is that all you can do, Goddess?" Arfoire taunted as she recovered from the attack.

Purple Heart grimaced as blood began to ooze down from her back once more, despite the pain she knew that the fight had to continue, it wouldn't be long until the Leanbox forces arrive to finish the job. However, things did not seem to be going their way. Iris Heart and Wolf Heart got separated near the factory where they were making a huge bloody mess, Vert was down while Compa treated her, Purple Sister was fighting by herself against a group of heavily armed Dark Followers, Purple Heart herself was having a hard time dealing with Arfoire as well as her wounds, then there was Victor and IF. The purple goddess look up towards the sky and saw not all was well, Victor's magically created eagle was being driven towards the ground by Kharzark's magically created fire serpent, IF was barely hanging onto the eagle as it plummeted to the ground.

"Please keep yourselves safe," Purple Heart muttered before resuming combat with what little energy she had left.

* * *

"Hold on tight!" Victor yelled at IF as he continued to throw a barrage of wind missiles at Kharzark.

"What do you think I'm doing?!" IF yelled back as she continued to grip tightly around Victor's left leg.

"Trying to cut the circulation off my leg is what I think you're doing!"

"Shut up!"

As the eagle fell to the ground while the fire serpent plunged its fangs deep into the magically created creature's neck the fire wizard atop the fiery beast stood with his legs apart and his back straight, he seemed to be sucking in air through his mask. It was then that both Victor and IF fully faced the devastating power of fire magic. " **Thundering Fire Roar!** " Kharzark shouted as jets of flame erupted from his mouth and through the mouth holes in his mask, the fire roar encased around the head of the eagle and hit Victor and IF full force, the wind mage only survived due to a wind shield he quickly summoned to protect himself and IF.

The eagle was not so fortunate, it crashed to the ground and disappeared in a puff of smoke, this left a somewhat burned Victor on the ground while IF was hanging onto the fire serpent's leg, fortunately for the guild agent Kharzark failed to notice her. As the wind mage kneeled on the ground and began to recover his breath Kharzark's fire serpent evaporated into nothing as the fire wizard leapt to the ground, his sword arm poised to strike Victor down once and for all. As the fire wizard made his approach he heard something run up behind him, when Kharzark turned around he was attack by IF who showed no mercy to her enemy.

" **Soul Combination!** " IF shouted as she pummelled kick and hits straight against Kharzark's chest and face.

The savage attack sent Kharzark back, his mask began to crack until the left part of the mask cracked away and fell off to the ground. IF and Victor looked on in shock as they saw what the Dark Captain's face look like underneath the now broken mas. The face was heavily damaged by burning, the skin was damaged beyond repair and there appeared to be no eyebrows, his lips were parched, a snarling expression was visible and he appeared to be glaring sternly. This threw IF into pity and disgust, although it did leave her wide open to an attack which the Dark Captain waisted no time in complying with. Kharzark lunged forward and his sword arm swung down vertically, the spiky blade slashed through the Guild agent across the chest and gut, she fell back in pain before the fire wizard pressed the palm of his left hand against her gut.

" **Fireball!** " Kharzark shouted at fire erupted from his hand and straight against IF.

The Guild agent cried out in pain as she was sent hurdling across the ground, a small strand of smoke came from her damaged clothing and skin. As Victor gazed at the sight he suddenly felt something that he had not felt in a long time: anger. His teeth clenched tightly, his fists became strained and deep growls escaped from his mouth. The wind mage had not been this angry for a long time. Without uttering a single sound Victor raised his left hand towards the sky and began to channel wind magic from the air itself into his hand, Kharzark turned around and sighed with annoyance.

"Don't you know when to quit?" the fire wizard asked in his annoyed tone.

"I'll make you pay, bastard!" Victor yelled. "Fire can defeat wind!"

"Says you! Now die!"

Kharzark charged forward as jets of flame erupted out of the palm of his hand while his sword arm was raised into a stabbing position in the air, Victor snarled at the fire wizard and then grinned as he looked up at the sky. The sky above the two magic users was dark and ominous, then the dark clouds spiralled down into the palm of Victor's left hand, a sinister expression was on his face as he glared at Kharzark.

"I'll show you why fire can never defeat wind. **Gust of Destruction!** "

The wind magic in Victor's left hand continued to build up until the hand was lowered and pointed at the fire wizard, that was when Victor yelled his attack. Gusts of armour piercing wind crashed forth from the wind mage's hand and straight into Kharzark and the area around him, large pieces of stone from the rocky ground were turned into ash while others were sent miles away, Kharzark was in the middle of it and was not having a great time. When the attack finally broke off Victor fell to the ground on one knee and panted deeply for air, the attack took much more energy out of him than he thought it would. The Dark Captain was still alive but looked much worse compared to his rival, the fire wizard's grey robes were tattered and shredded which left any onlooker a good look at his exposed chest and arms, the rest of his mask was riddled with cracks and the sword in place of his right arm had been shattered in two, the top half was sticking out of the ground not far away. Apart from that, and quite a bit of bleeding, Kharzark appeared to be fine.

"You filthy scumbag, I'll teach you real magic!" growled Kharzark as he approached the now helpless wind mage. As he neared Victor an explosion occurred around the north-west, it was the island's factory. Pieces of building parts flew across the area and even one piece almost decapitated Kharzark, he only survived due to barely dodging out of the way. "What the hell happened? Why did it explode?!"

Victor chuckled before grunting in pain. "I am fairly sure that that's the work of Angel and Lady Plutia, you better watch out cause this fight is turning in our favour now."

* * *

Purple Heart crashed to the ground and cried out in pain, above her was Arfoire with her spear pointing directly at the purple goddess's head, the duel did not go too well for her due to her wounds and thus she only lasted around several minutes – at least between ten to twenty. It seemed as if Purple Heart was about to win the duel until her wounds got to painful to deal with, that gave the gothic witch enough time to strike the CPU of Planeptune down to the ground.

"Are you ready to die, CPU?" Arofire taunted.

"Bring it on!" Purple Heart replied as she gritted her teeth.

As Arfoire swept down for the killer blow something fast came out of the sky, a blood-curdling cry came from the falling object which made the duel stop suddenly, the witch looked up and tried to make out what it was. Purple Heart, however, grinned as she saw the object come closer towards them. "What?! What's so funny?!" Arfoire yelled at the purple goddess.

"Oh you'll find out very, very soon," came the reply.

Indeed she was right, the falling object crashed into Arfoire and smashed into the ground as the factory exploded, all that could be seen was a white and yellow blur as the object collided to the ground. As soon as the dust had subsided everyone nearby, from CPUs to Dark Followers, could see what was going on. On the ground in a small crater was Arfoire, she appeared to have been knocked out by the impact, while standing next to her was what looked like another CPU. She had long blonde hair, orange-yellowy eyes and fair skin, there appeared to be long yellow clawed gauntlets on her hands, she wore a one piece swimsuit styled CPU outfit, the top looked to be overly stretched due to the oversized breasts that were bigger than Vert's – in both CPU and human form. This busty CPU looked over at Purple Heart and smiled brightly.

"Neptuna!" the CPU cried out in a joyful tone. "Hi there."

"P-ko? What are you doing here?" the Planeptunian CPU asked.

"I heard from Histy that you were out here, so I came to help." A Dark Follower then tried to attack her from behind but was quickly smashed in the face and sent flying by chirpy CPU

Purple Heart smiled at Peashy/Yellow Heart and chuckled as she stood up. "Thanks, P-ko, I'm glad you're here to help. Come on, we better help out the others, I can see Nepgear fighting to the death nearby, Compa is over with IF while Vert is with her, and I think I see Sadie and Angie heading over to Victor's position."

As soon as she stopped talking carrier ships bearing the symbol of Leanbox on their flags arrived at the eastern coastline of the Zune District, the Leanbox armed forces had arrived and were being led by officers from the army and Cave – one of the most well recognised and accomplished agents in Leanbox. The Leanbox soldiers were wearing padded green armour and helmets with green combat clothing, many were carrying guns, spears and other weapons at their belts or in their hands. Cave was leading a division of soldiers straight towards the heart of the battle while the rest gathered up any Dark Followers who were able to be captured.

"Come on, we better help Nep Jr before heading over to Victor," Purple Heart told Yellow Heart.

* * *

Kharzark watched with intense rage as the Leanbox armed forces arrived and immediately began to turn the tide of the battle against him, then when he gazed northward he saw Arfoire being taken down by a white and yellow blur, then he looked to the north-west and saw the two sadists who scared him to death coming towards him and Victor. The wind mage looked up at the fire wizard and grinned.

"Having doubts are you?" Victor asked with a grin.

"Shut it already," grumbled Kharzark as he readied himself for the fight of his life.

Iris Heart and Wolf Heart appeared in the air, both had devious and sadistic looks on their faces as they gripped their chosen weapons tightly in their hands, it was clear that Kharzark was at a huge disadvantage with the incoming fight at hand, he was still wounded and happened to be running low on magic energy. Kharzark knew what fate had in store for him, and it did not look good for the Dark Captain. With a determined expression he readied himself one last time.

"Well what are you waiting for? Come and fight me!" Kharzark yelled as fire erupted around his body. " **Flame Cloak!** "

Iris Heart licked her lips and smirked wickedly. "Oh dear, it seems someone needs to be taught a lesson. Angie, deary, care to join me?"

"Of course, wouldn't miss it," Wolf Heart replied.

The two sadistic CPUs lunged forward straight towards the Dark Captain, Wolf Heart pounced to the ground and jumped up with his giant two-handed sword aimed at Kharzark's head, the fire wizard moved back before bringing one of his knees straight up against the wolf-like CPU's chin and sent him flying back. Next was Iris Heart's turn, she grinned sadistically and laughed a little as she looked at his exposed face. "Is that your 'please punish me' face? I hope so~" Iris Heart cooed in her sadistic tone.

Kharzark growled in annoyance but he was rather frightened by the sadistic goddess, and now that Wolf Heart had gotten up onto his feet with an angry expression on his face there was not much he could do but fight to the death. Iris Heart lunged forward and swung her sword down towards his head, the Dark Captain swept past the blow and swung his sword arm straight at Wolf Heart and parried the wolf-like CPU's sword, he then threw his leg against Iris Heart's gut and sent her back a bit before the Dark Captain tried to punch Wolf Heart. The wolf-like CPU dodged and let out a wolfish roar as he slashed his sword ferociously against what was left of Kharzark's sword arm, both parried and sidestepped one another for an advantage, at one point Wolf Heart sliced a few slash marks across Kharzark's chest and left arm while the Dark Captain had managed to get a few slices on his arms and even a few slashes across his body. To the fire wizard's surprise it seemed as if Iris Heart was now watching the duel, a masochistic expression was on her face and she seemed to be sucking on her finger tenderly, this distracted the Dark Captain much to his misfortune.

"Last mistake, asshole!" Wolf Heart yelled as he charged at the fire wizard, he tackled Kharzark to the ground and slashed his clawed gauntlets across his chest and face.

The Dark Captain kicked Wolf Heart up and quickly stabbed his sword arm straight through the wolf-like CPU's chest, the broken blade pierced through the flesh and moved upwards until the Dark Captain had almost severed the left arm off Wolf Heart, he then slashed his blade across the wolf-like CPU's neck and almost ripped out the CPU's guts. Wolf Heart staggered back as blood flowed from his mouth while Iris Heart and Victor stared flabbergasted, Kharzark stood up and looked rather pleased with what he did, that was until he took a second glance at the male CPU. Instead of being dead he was still alive, the black and red aura caused by Darkside had become darker while some sort of different aura appeared out of the deadly wounds that were inflicted upon him, they started to disappear and the long, deep slash across his neck disappeared too.

"What… what the hell is going on with you?!" Kharzark yelled, Iris Heart too seemed rather shocked.

Wolf Heart stared at Kharzark, his eyes filled with madness. "It's called Living Dead, Wraith taught me that a while back. It is a passive ability that allows me to continue on living for a few minutes, afterwards I have to be put in a stable condition or else I might actually die. Plutie, let's get this over with!"

"Right with you, darling~"

The two of them grouped together and charged straight towards Kharzark, in a moment of panic and rage he leaned back and was about to let out his most powerful attack. " **Thundering Fire…** ack **!** "

A bullet flew out of the area around his lower left shoulder and chest near his heart, blood exploded out from the small hole and a pained sound escaped his throat, he turned his head around and saw where it came from: IF. The Guild agent was kneeling on the ground and covered in bandages with an exhausted Compa next to her, Vert was conscious yet unable to continue battle. Smoke came out of the pistol that was held in her right hand, when her arm lowered she grinned in victory. "Vengeance, bitch," IF mumbled.

Kharzark grumbled in pain before looking in front of him, there he saw his doom. Wolf heart and Iris Heart were racing towards him in a quickened pace. " **Sadomasochism** **Combination** **:** **Crimson Blood-lust!** " Wolf Heart and Iris Heart shouted together.

The two sadistic CPUs launched their attack upon the wounded Dark Captain, blow after blow from their swords, fists and feet made their mark upon the fire wizard, bone after bone was cracked and broken. Blood flowed from the savage attacks that was brought against the Dark Captain, the attack was a combination of furious frontal attacks which was then followed by the two of them flying into the air and suddenly crashing straight into Kharzark, a crimson beam followed them and hit the fire wizard. The attack was over, Kharzark was standing in a crater that was covered in smoke and broken rocks, blood covered the ground. The Dark Captain was limb yet managed to remain standing, bones throughout his body were broken, in fact just about all of his bones except his skull and neck were broken and some of them were sticking out of his flesh, blood flowed down them and onto the ground. The fire wizard gritted his teeth as Wolf Heart approached him, his sword held in his right hand over his shoulder, the black and red aura around the wolf-like CPU was gone and his wounds were starting to reopen. Iris Heart stood nearby with Victor, meanwhile IF, Compa, a badly wounded Vert, an exhausted Purple Heart, Purple Sister and Yellow Heart were also standing nearby, watching the scene.

"Time to end this, Dark Captain," Wolf Heart told Kharzark as he pointed his sword at his opponent.

"Get… on with.. it… then," Kharzark grunted as he tried to breathe for air, he had come to two conclusions. The first was that his death was imminent, the second was that one or a few broken rib bones had pierced his lungs, but that wasn't his major concern. "It doesn't… matter in the end… my death will… mean nothing… in the long run."

Wolf Heart growled and then lunged forward with his sword pointing at Kharzark, the blade pierced through the Dark Captain's chest and out the back, a slight painful sound emitted from Kharzark as the blade went through him. The wolf-like CPU then ripped his blade out of Kharzark chest and everyone watched as the body fell to the ground, as this happened Kharzark the Interrogator said his last words as he grinned.

"My life for the Dark Lord."

Dust rose from where Kharzark fell and silence reigned over the area, it was soon broken when Wolf Heart reverted back to human form and collapsed to the ground, blood began to flow from his deadly wounds. Compa quickly rushed over to Angel and begun to heal him as best she could with what little strength was left in her. As this happened Arfoire awoke and noticed what was going on, she also noticed that Cave and a few soldiers were approaching her with the intent to capture her just like the other Dark Captians who had survived the battle. The gothic witch grumbled and managed to stand up, as Cave and the Leanboxic soldiers approached her Arfoire sighed and with what little energy she had left the witch flew up into the air and flew away, bullets flew past her yet none hit their mark. As she got away the witch put her left hand in a home-made pocket she felt something and sighed with relief: it was the Share Energy Container that had the Energy of Leanbox flowing through it.

As Arfoire got away Vert sighed. "Enough, leave her be, we do not have the energy to continue the chase," Vert told Cave and the soldiers.

"Awww, I could get her if I wanted," Yellow Heart whimpered in response.

"As much as I would like to go after Arbore it just wouldn't be worth our time, I'm afraid I have to agree with Vert," Purple Heart said before reverting to human form.

As Compa treated Angel with Iris Heart watching them Victor had caught up with IF and the two of them were smiling at one another, Purple Sister reverted back into Nepgear and sighed at the sight before her. She then picked up her N-gear and attempted to call Uni, but there was no signal coming from the mini tsundere's end. "Goodness, that's odd," Nepgear mumbled.

"What's wrong, my dear Nep spawn?" Neptune asked while Yellow Heart looked over the Planeptunian Candidate's shoulder.

"Oh, it's nothing much, it's just that I'm not picking up a signal from Lastation. I know that there isn't a signal problem here but it seems as if something has happened to the Lastation network or something."

"Maybe Nowa is getting hacked again or something like that."

"No matter what, it does sound like something is happening in Lastation at the moment," Victor interjected. "We better hope it isn't as bad as what happened with us."

"Ah come on, Lastation has Bri-Bri and the tsundere sisters. What could possibly go wrong?" Neptune asked with her beaming smile as the surviving Dark Followers were rounded up while the day grew darker. Victor noticed that the dark clouds that he created had not disappeared, instead they appeared to be moving to the north-east towards Lastation, the weather had taken a turn and the portents did not look good to the wind mage.

* * *

 **A/N: I finally got this done, about damn time! Thank you all for waiting, to some it may not have seemed that long since the last update but to me it felt like a long time, my studies took a hit to this. Thanks to angeldoesmc for his OC's HDD appearence, I added a few things to it so it'll be unique. And now one of the Dark Captains has finally fallen, I felt a bit bad about killing him off as I have grown attached to my villains, but it does all serve a purpose in the end. Any more characters you would like me to kill off though? What do you readers think is going to happen in Lastation? Judging from the dark weather that was mentioned it probably won't look well. Stay tuned for the next chapter whenever I can get around to it.**


	50. Lastation Burns

**Chapter 49: Lastation Burns**

As Kharzark and Arfoire were about to steal the Share Energy of Leanbox the enemy forces in Lastation were preparing for battle, the factories in the south-east of Lastation city were manufacturing weapons, armour and robots as fast as the mechanical machines could produce them. Lothar watched as numerous Dark Followers gathered weapons and pieces of armour to wear for the inevitable battle to come, small robots marched around with gun aimed at anything nearby and mechanics were piecing together parts for the killachines. Many people had grim expressions while others had joyful or saddened looks, everyone knew what was to come and some were unsure what would happen afterwards if they were successful.

Henderson, the ex soldier of Lastation, stood on a balcony outside the main factory, his gaze was set upon the city around him, the black haired man knew that not much would be left standing after this day was over. His eyes then turned towards the tallest building in Lastation: the Basilicom, it was a place that he would spit at every single time he passed the tall building. Henderson then heard heavy footsteps coming from behind him, he turned around to see Lothar in full battle armour walking towards the soldier, the Dark Captain was holding his giant war-hammer in his right hand and over his right shoulder. The bloodthirsty barbarian prince stood next to Henderson and gazed at the city.

"Quite a sight, ain't it?" Lothar asked the soldier without looking at him. "A pity that it is to be destroyed, at least in the centre of the city anyway."

"I've been living in this city all my life and many times I considered myself lucky to be here, but soon after I became an adult I joined the army and fought for the glory of my nation. That was until the Friendship Treaty was signed. I felt betrayed by the Goddess that I had swore to serve diligently and without question, we had all been betrayed. No one can just simply end a two hundred year war and then become friends soon afterwards, it's sickening that the damn Goddesses just swept it under the rug like it was nothing but a mere spat. It wasn't, people died because of them, people suffered, loved ones were lost and homes wrecked because they had a little 'spat'! That is what I think of this city, it is merely a hub for all that is corrupt, as are the other capitals of Gamindustri! They must be purged."

Lothar looked over at the soldier and raised an eyebrow before chuckling. "What a speech, save it for politics though."

Henderson would have started an argument with the bloodthirsty Dark Captain but he knew how angry Lothar could get, therefore he quickly decided that it was safer to stay silent. Instead the soldier sighed deeply and reached into one of his pockets, he pulled out a cigarette and a flip lighter, his teeth clenched the cigarette tightly as he lit it up. Lothar stared on with a raised eyebrow before finally chuckling, Henderson was surprised at it all, this was the first time he had seen the barbarian prince be like this. "Hmm? Did I do something funny, sir?" Henderson asked the Dark Captain.

"No, no, it isn't that. I just find it amusing that people smoke with peculiar white things is all," Lothar replied.

"Is that so? They're called cigarettes, want one?"

"Hmm, ain't bad to try something new sometimes I was told once, alright then."

Henderson gave Lothar a cigarette and lit it up, when the Dark Captain put it in his mouth he sucked up some smoke and blew it out, much to Henderson's amazement the smoke formed the shape of a man. "Whoa, that's some skill you have there," Henderson said before continuing to smoke.

"Back from where I come from we don't have these cigarettes, instead we have pipes and some sort of plant called 'pipeweed'. It takes skill to form the smoke into some sort of inanimate object, took me several years before I could master it. Although, pipeweed had a better taste to it than this stuff."

"Interesting, pity you didn't bring any with you then."

"Yeah, wish I did but we had no time, the war was over and we barely had enough time to cross dimensions to get here."

Henderson had heard about the location of Lothar's home and from what the ex soldier had heard it sounded like a fantasy world come to life, he pitied himself for not knowing how to cross dimensions just to see it. Silence reigned for the next few minutes as Henderson and Lothar continued to smoke, Henderson was the first to stop. He took out the finished cigarette and threw it onto the ground where he then stomped on it, Lothar looked at the ex soldier with a raised eyebrow. "Why did you do that?" Lothar asked.

"Just cause. You're about to finish it off anyway so you should do the same," Henderson replied.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Lothar complied and did the same as Henderson, once done the Dark Captain puffed out the last remains of smoke and chuckled as he looked out over at the city. "Are your soldiers ready for action?"

"Yes, sir, they're ready and eager – at least somewhat eager."

"That's good enough then, take them and prepare the trap outside the city to the south, there's better cover over there for the Dark Followers to take shots at the CPUs, then I will head over to their Basilicom and take their Share Energy but Anonydeath has to have time to send the message to their CPUs beforehand. Once they are on their knees begging for mercy you must finish them off, I don't care how bloody it is just take care of them. Understood?"

"Clearly."

"Good, don't fail me."

Soon afterwards the hurried sounds of footsteps were heard coming from behind them in the factory, Lothar and Henderson turned around and looked at the entrance that led back inside the factory from the balcony, standing there was an exhausted Dark Follower. It was the same woman who had to teach Lothar how to use a laptop when Anonydeath sent the Dark Captain a message. "S...Sir, we have a situation," she told the barbarian prince.

"What is it? This better be worth my time."

"There's more CPUs in Lastation than we previously thought, turns out that the Goddesses of Lowee are here in the city. I just saw the patron CPU, White Heart, out on some sort of date with the Shadow Walker."

Lothar growled in annoyance and face-palmed himself. "Ah shit, this could throw our plans into jeopardy. Guess we will need those killachines after all."

"Should we alter our trap?" Henderson asked.

"Hmm, I don't think so. Just lure the Lastation CPUs out of the city, I'll take care of what's left."

* * *

The streets of Lastation were partially filled with people doing their daily rounds, cars drove by and some factories puffed out smoke, yet in the middle of all this were two people, one was a small and somewhat quiet goddess and the other was a rage driven Ancient. Their purpose for going into the city: a promised date. The previous day Brian had promised Blanc to take her out on a date around Lastation city after the CPU of Lowee got frightened due to her nightmare, now the two of them were wandering around aimlessly, so it appeared anyway.

"Hey, Brian, do you know where we're heading?" Blanc asked.

"I hope so, it's been a few days since I left the Basilicom," Brian replied as he re-straightened his hat.

"So where're we going?"

"You'll see."

Blanc pouted in a way that Brian found cute, this led him to pat the small goddess gently on the head, his right hand slipped underneath her hat and rubbed her head. Blanc didn't stop pouting at first but then she giggled. "I guess I will see soon enough," Blanc said with a smile.

The young man blushed at the smile and glanced away, which caused Blanc to chuckle. She then latched herself to his right arm and wrapped her arms around his, the Ancient looked down and stammered slightly as the CPU looked straight at him. "Is this alright?" Blanc asked with a tinge of red in her cheeks.

"Y-Yeah, I don't mind it," Brian replied.

As they continued to walk forward down the streets Blanc relaxed her grip a little so that she was holding his hand instead, the brown haired duo were an odd sight for the citizens of Lastation who happened to walk past them. Brian could tell that several of these people eyed him and Blanc with either suspicion or confusion, others had a judgemental look to them. The young man looked at Blanc and noticed that the book loving CPU had too noticed the expression of the people who walked past them, Brian squeezed her hand and caught her attention. "You alright?" Brian asked Blanc. "You're looking a bit stressed is all."

"Um, well, its just that all these people are giving us odd looks, it's kind of making me nervous," Blanc replied as she looked back at Brian.

"Yeah, same here. I guess they don't like the idea of a goddess going out on a date with someone who could destroy half a city without help."

"Maybe, but they're being judgemental if that's the case. You're a great person, but all they have seen – or heard about – is your anger, once they see that other side to you they should see you as an alright guy. If it was achieved in Lowee then it can happen here and throughout the rest of Gamindustri."

"Perhaps, but it is hard to change the minds of people these days."

Blanc noticed how Brian had an uncaring expression on his face, yet underneath it all the Lowean CPU could tell that there was a hint of sadness as well. For the next five minutes they walked side-by-side in silence, their finger intertwined as they held hands. Whenever Blanc gazed at Brian's face she would see mixed expressions, obviously there was his anger, then there was happiness, then there was something else that she hadn't seen before: fear. Her curiosity was piqued now that she had seen it, although Blanc could only wonder what the young man feared. With a quiet sigh she broke away from Brian's hand and walked in front of him, causing him to stop in his tracks.

"Brian, what do you fear?" Blanc asked with her hands behind her back.

"Wh-What do you mean? I don't fear anything," Brian replied as he stammered.

"You're bad at lying, just tell me the truth already." Blanc then glanced away and twiddled her fingers around behind her back. "If you don't to I can understand."

Brian sighed and looked straight at Blanc. "It's fine, I can tell you. I fear that I might lose everything that I've begun to cherish so far, I'm afraid that I might loose everything and everybody, I am scared that it might happen at any time. Then there is a second fear, this one involves my memory. I have a hard time remembering certain things throughout my life, the largest gap is my childhood, and that got me thinking. What would happen if I forgot all the great times that I had here in Gamindustri? What if I forget about everyone, especially you, Blanc?"

Blanc looked at Brian for a moment before giving him a gentle hug. "Is that it? I guess it's a good reason. You shouldn't worry about it all, we CPUs and our friends won't go down without a fight."

"Yeah, I know, you'd probably go all crazy when in HDD and carve the enemy in two with your giant axe."

Blanc chuckled as she let go of the young man. "Probably, though I know you would go overboard, not that I don't mind it of course." As the CPU looked over to her right across the street she saw what appeared to be a little arcade district, with a rough grip on Brian's coat she then began to walk across the street and towards the arcade district.

"Uh, Blanc, where are we going?" Brian asked as he tried not to trip.

"I'm going to make sure that you never forget me, my sisters or anybody else," came the reply.

The couple crossed the street and into what appeared to be an arcade room, it was filled with all manner of old fashioned games, stores and whatnot, overall it had a Planeptune feel to it. Blanc raised an eyebrow before chuckling in amusement. "Well, now I know what those Planeptune girls and the tsuns were talking about," Blanc chuckled.

"What do you mean?"

"I'm guessing that Noire allowed construction of a small arcade district some time ago that looked similar in design to those found in Planeptune, heh, it's funny actually."

"Do you think Lowee should have some as well?"

"No, it would ruin our image I'm afraid. Now then, in every good arcade there's always the same thing and in this case… ah, there it is." Blanc pointed to a small location near them.

The two stopped walking and Brian looked at where Blanc was pointing, it was a photo booth. "A photo booth? How will this help?" Brian asked.

"If we had an image of this day then hopefully you will remember your experiences in this world. Come on, let's get a photo."

Blanc and Brian entered the black and white photo booth and closed the door behind them, the stall was rather small and cramped wit ha small bench built into the wall. Brian sat down first onto the plastic bench and found it surprising when Blanc sat on his lap, the young man got a good look at her face and saw that she was embarrassed. "Hey, Blanc, there can be another way if this isn't to you're liking," Brian told the Lowean CPU.

"I-It's fine, let's just get this over with," replied Blanc.

Blanc put a few credits into the nearby machine and both smiled as bes they could as their photo was taken, the flash almost seemed to blind them at first. Once they stood up and left the booth the small machine next to the entrance buzzed to life and a small photo of a smiling Blanc and Brian came out, the Lowean CPU took it and gave it to Brian. "There, that should help you remember in case you ever forget," Blanc told the Ancient.

Brian took hold of it and peered closely at the small photo in his hands, he couldn't help but smile at it. "Thank you, Blanc, this means a lot to me."

As Blanc chuckled a growl came from her stomach, she looked down and became embarrassed, this only caused Brian to laugh. "Don't laugh at me, you damn ass," Blanc grumbled as she blushed and averted her eyes.

"Sorry, sorry, you're just too adorable when you're like this is all, can't help myself sometimes."

"Hmph, sounds like you are turning into a male Neptune, I suggest you stop it before that happens… or else."

"Fine then, but nonetheless you do sound hungry. Follow me, I know a great place to eat." Brian put the photo in his white coat's inner top pocket, took a hold of Blanc's left hand and led her out of the arcade district and back onto the streets of Lastation. They turned passed several corners and walked down a few streets before they arrived at their location: Passe. Blanc looked at the sign before returning her gaze towards Brian.

"Is this where we're eating lunch?"

Brian nodded. "Yep, the people in here are alright, but the owner of the factory next door is the one who was nice to me when I came here to do a mission. Come on."

Before they entered the restaurant the brown haired duo noticed two flying objects in the sky, as they looked more closely it turned out to be Black Heart and Black Sister on the move towards the south, they appeared to be flying rather quickly in great haste. "Huh, I wonder what's going on," Brian wondered aloud.

"Who knows, just let them do what they want to do. Anyway, let's head inside," Blanc responded as she opened the glass door.

Once Brian and Blanc stepped inside they were met by a cheery Chian, the bluenette appeared to be in a good mood when she saw the young man. "Hey there, Brian! Been a while. Oh, who's this?"

"This is Blanc, CPU of Lowee."

Blanc waved with a small smile on her face, Chian seemed thoughtful for a moment before smirking at the two of them. "Ooooo, did the Shadow Walker get himself a girlfriend? Let alone a CPU for that matter? Now this is interesting news, guess the rumour was true after all."

"Eh? What rumour?" Brian asked.

"I'll tell you, follow me." Chian motioned for them to follow her to an empty table by the one of the windows, when they sat down – Brian and Blanc on one side with Chian on the other – Blanc began to look through the menu while Chian gave Brian a cheeky grin. "So then, how long have you two been dating?" she asked.

"Around a day or two ago, but why are you asking?" Brian responded.

"Well, I heard a rumour that the almighty White Heart was dating a guy back in Lowee, guess the rumour was only half true then." Chian then glanced at Blanc and noticed that she was blushing. "Don't worry about it, Blanny, I don't judge."

"R-Right," Blanc responded as she hid behind the menu.

The next few minutes passed pretty quickly for the tree of them, although it had actually been quite a short while, Brian and Blanc didn't mind that Chian was with them, in fact Blanc opened up to the bluenette about certain things, one of which was embarrassing things about Brian. Blanc had even sat down next to Chian to gossip about the young man after they had ordered their food, even Chian had ordered some food for herself. After the small meals arrived Blanc and Chian continued to talk in an amused mood, much to Brian's confusion. The young man munched on his peanut butter, ham and cheese sandwich with delight while Blanc took small bites out of her pastry after she returned to her seat beside Brian, Chian had ordered a fruitcake and was quick to devour it, she was the first to finish eating.

"Ah, that was good," Chian mumbled with a smile as she rubbed her belly.

"This is good food," Blanc said after she finished eating.

"Yeah, my family are great cooks so I come and eat here whenever I get the chance."

"Tell them I say thanks, will you?"

"Sure thing."

Brian chuckled and finished off the last of his sandwich, he leaned back and sighed with relief, everything seemed to be going pretty well. That was until he suddenly heard the earth rumble and items on the nearby counter shake, he looked outside the window with curiosity to see what was the source of it all. Blanc and Chian noticed it too and glanced around the place, the Lowean CPU had a suspicious look on her face as she looked around. "What the hell is making that noise?" Blanc asked she glared outside.

Brian walked outside with Blanc and Chian to see something coming from the distance, citizens began to scream and run for their lives as the large object came into view. It was a killachine, in fact there were two of them. Blanc growled as she saw who was on top of the first killachine: Lothar the Bloodthirsty. "Brian, time to gear up!" Blanc told him as she transformed.

"Got it," Brian responded as he grabbed his gladius from under his coat and the Armas Mecha Sword as well, he held both swords in his hands. "Chian, get the citizens out of here, let nothing stop you."

"Right," Chian nodded and immediately began to round up people and tell them to flee the city, she first started in Passe and her factory.

"What about Rom and Ram?" Brian asked White Heart.

"They should soon know what's going on. Come on, let's break some heads!"

* * *

"Tch, this is getting annoying!" yelled Black Heart as she dodged bullet after bullet.

Black Heart hand not suspected a trap in the dense woodlands of the south, nor did she suspect that the ones who ambushed her and Black Sister were in fact a mix of Lastation citizens and other people from across Gamindustri – but mostly the group was made up of Lastation soldiers and citizens. They had arrived in the area due to a message that Black Hear had received on her computer while signing some paperwork, the message had informed the Lastation CPU that there was a group of monsters that had taken up residence in the forest and needed to be put down. Black Heart had been sceptical because it was from an anonymous source, but she reasoned that it was still worth checking out anyway, so she grabbed her younger sister and left the Lowee twins behind with Kei. Now the prideful Black Heart wished she hadn't even read the message.

There were around fifteen to eighteen Dark Followers hiding in bushes and trees, all had either guns, spears or swords, one even had a spear and a small, steel shield. Black Heart dodged another bullet before charging forward and smashing the hilt of her sword against the chin of one Dark Follower, sending the enemy soldier skidding across the grassy ground. Black Sister fired her weapon and watched as several Dark Followers jumped away from the blast, the CPUs were doing their best to incapacitate their enemy without killing anyone, they were not quite sure what the media would say if people found out that their CPUs were killing people that were citizens of Lastation. The CPU Candidate then dodged round after round of bullets as the Dark Followers returned volley, one even threw a grenade at the mini tsundere which missed her. The grenade exploded nearby and sent dirt and branches flying in all directions.

"Who the hell are these guys?" Black Sister asked her older sibling when they flew close to each other.

"Thy must be Dark Followers, it is the only way I can explain why they are trying to kill us," replied the patron CPU.

"Then that means Lastation is in trouble. Should we head back to the Basilicom? If Dark Followers are out here then their leader might be in the city somewhere."

"I'm sure Blanc, Brian, the twins and Kei can handle it, let's knock these guys out first."

The Candidate nodded and began to fire a barrage at the enemy, she blasted away trees, bushes and any sort of cover that the Dark Followers could use to their advantage. She flew around the air to dodge their bullets and continued to fire her oversized weapon with great efficiency while Black Heart moved swiftly around the battlefield, the tsundere CPU swung her mighty sword with elegance and parried any attempts to strike her down, she would then kick her enemies aside or smash her fists into their faces.

" **Lace Ribbons!** " Black Heart shouted, she kicked one of the Dark Followers into the air and began to slice them up with her sword, after several strikes the Dark Follower collapsed to the ground and groaned in defeat. "Heh, you shouldn't have gone up against me then, foolish idiot."

Henderson looked at the scene and gritted his teeth tightly, things were not going well for him and his crew. "Come on, Lothar, hurry up already!" Henderson muttered to himself as he gripped his combat shotgun.

At least five Dark Followers had already been defeated by the Lastation CPUs and the rest were not so eager to get back into battle, they were dismayed that the barbarian prince had not taken the Share Energy of Lastation yet, so the prospect of fighting two CPUs at the same times was a daunting one to say at least. Henderson grumbled in annoyance as his soldiers kept back in the shadows and hide from the sight of the Goddesses. "Cowards, they're not even fighting from a distance," the ex soldier mumbled. "Hold on, I could use this to my advantage."

Black Heart and Black Sister flew to the ground and gazed at the tree filled battlefield around them, small craters and unconscious bodies of fallen Dark Followers littered the ground before them, Black Sister looked over at her older sibling and grinned. "I think it's safe to say that we won this battle," the Candidate boasted.

"No, there is still a few left around us," Black Heart responded as she looked around.

Henderson grinned as he pulled a grenade off his belt, pulled out the pin and threw it towards the CPUs after waiting for three seconds. The grenade exploded in the air as it came close to Black Heart and Black Sister, the patron CPU of Lastation was forced back while Black Sister – who was closer to the blast – was forced off her feet and sent flying across the field until the Candidate crashed into a tree. "Uni!" Black Heart yelled as she looked at her sister's position. As she began to run over to her several Dark Followers jumped out of the bushes and trees to do battle once more. Black Heart bashed away one Dark Follower before swinging her blade into a collision with a broadsword, she twisted it around and brought her right foot harshly against the stomach of the attacker, sending her flying. The CPU snarled and brought her weapon down at the nearest person: Henderson, the ex soldier raised his combat shotgun and blocked the attack, as the two stared at each other ferociously Black sister was starting to sit up and rejoin the battle, that was until something happened.

Both CPUs of Lastation felt something strange happen to them, it was as if they were starting to become weaker, then there was a sudden tinge of pain that became almost unbearable. Both Black Heart and Black Sister gasped in pain and collapsed to their knees and onto the ground before reverting back to human form, sweat flowed from their forehead and it seemed as if they were completely sick. It was the same thing that had happened with Neptune and Nepgear a while back in the cave with the lizard men and the ancient dragon.

"What… what's going on?" Noire asked herself as she laid on her back.

Henderson sighed with relief as he regained his posture. "It is simple: you have lost your Share Energy, Lothar sure did take his time though, guess I can't complain though."

"H-Huh?! But how… how is that possible?"

"I guess Lothar got lucky against that Lowee bitch and that Shadow Walker guy, now it's time to take out the trash before you and the Candidate die from the loss of Shares." Henderson then aimed his combat shotgun directly at Noire's face and grinned. "I would apologise for this but I stopped believing in you ever since the Friendship Treaty." The ex soldier sighed and pulled the trigger as the tsundere CPU closed her eyes in pain and sorrow.

* * *

"Dammit! He's reached the Basilicom!" yelled Brian as he battered away a Dark Follower who was trying to fight him. "I hope that Rom, Ram, Kei and the security there can hold him and that killachine off."

"This. Is. Annoying!" White Heart shouted in annoyance as she parried several blows from incoming attacks before sidestepping the attackers and smashing her axe at them. She kicked away a Dark Follower before head butting with them, the Lowean CPU then charged straight into a large group of enemy soldiers who were nearby. " **Zerstorung!** " The mad driven CPU raged her way through the enemy lines with her mighty axe and smashed all before her.

Brian elbowed a Dark Follower in the face before quickly turning around and kneeing his opponent in the gut, sending the soldier to the ground. The young man then found the time to gaze around the place and sigh, Lastation was burning. The sudden attack by Lothar and his Dark Followers, along with several killachines, took everyone by surprise. Now the city was being destroyed, buildings falling apart, people slaughtered and soldiers on both sides fighting for their very survival, such ferocity had not been seen since the Console War.

Brian then looked over at the Lastation Basilicom and saw that smoke was rising from the building, it seemed that Lothar had got what he came for: the Share Energy of Lastation. "Blanc, I think that damn Dark Captain just stole this country's Share Energy," Brian shouted.

"We better get over there then, come on."

Brian ran towards the Basilicom as fast as his legs could carry him while White Heart flew swiftly through the air, both did their best to dodge rogue bullets from either side as well as falling pieces of rubble from buildings. As they neared the Basilicom they saw someone waiting for them: Lothar, the Dark Captain was atop a killachine with his war-hammer in his hands, a malevolent look was on his face, dead bodies of Lastation soldiers and Dark Followers littered the ground. "Ah, about time you two showed up," the barbarian prince said. "I hope you put up more of a fight than those Candidates did."

White Heart growled and clenched her fists tightly. "You sick bastard, what did you do with my little sisters?!"

"Oh not much, if you're lucky to get pass me then you might find some pieces of your sisters lying around, I wouldn't know of course since my minions are the ones who are fighting them and the pitiful security."

"I'LL KILL YOU!" White Heart flew towards Lothar with the intent to kill, but she never got close to him.

The Dark Captain raised his hands into the air and muttered. " **Exploding Nebular!** "

The blood from the nearby corpses rose into the air and exploded, the shards of solidified blood pierced through Brian and White Heart, causing both to fall to the ground in agony. "What is this? Blood magic?" Brian mumbled.

"I guess so, but that ain't gonna frighten me!" replied White Heart as she wiped away some of her own blood of her right arm before flying towards Lothar.

The Dark Captain grinned deviously as he watched the CPU of Lowee charge straight towards him, a bloodthirsty expression was on both their faces. "Come then, lets get hammering!" Lothar yelled as he swung his war-hammer at White Heart.

White Heart's axe and Lothar's war-hammer collided with each other, sparks flew off from their weapons as they pushed them against each other. White Heart was the first to break it off as she sidestepped the barbarian prince and land on the killachine, she then swung her axe repeatedly at Lothar in a mad driven frenzy, her eye was glowing red with rage. Lothar blocked blow after blow as he looked for a sign of weakness from the Lowean CPU, the Dark Captain then found one after he gazed at the deep wound he inflicted on her right arm and waist when he used blood magic to attack her and Brian, he knew what to do next. Lothar sidestepped White Heart and brought his armoured knee against her right arm, she flinched from the pain and backed off, she swore that if the blow was any harder her arm would have been broken.

" **Daemonic Blood Spears!** " yelled Lothar, the blood from atop the killachine rose and floated around the Dark Captain before turning into sharp spears, then they surged forward at White Heart.

The Lowean CPU flew into the air and tried to dodge the attacks, and she was almost successful with that, but she failed to look behind her in time, she was then pierced by one of the bloodied daemonic spears. It went through her back and out of her gut before disappearing into nothing, a painful cry emitted from her as blood began to trickle from the corner of her mouth and her wounds. Lothar looked pleased as was about to launch the attack again, until the killachine became off balanced and began to tumble to the ground. The Dark Captain looked down at the ground to see the Ancient battling against the deadly machine.

" **Wraith Blade!** " Brian yelled as he severed one of the four robotic legs off the killachine, he lept back to the ground and grinned in triumph as the robot began to tumble to the ground, that was until it balanced itself neatly with its three remaining legs.

"That does it, finish him off!" Lothar shouted at the killachine. "I don't care if the Right Hand needs him alive, I want this bastard dead at my knees!"

"Like hell I'll let that happen!" White Heart yelled in response as she flew straight at the Dark Captain, the speed caught him off guard which allowed her to punch the barbarian prince in the armoured chest and kick him off the killachine, he tumbled down one of the legs and straight to the ground. " **Getter Ravine** **!** " White Heart raised her axe and brought it down against Lothar with tremendous force, shards of ice shot forth from the hit and into the air, once the Lowean CPU stood back she was left staring at a man with broken armour and blood oozing out of his mouth, gut and chest.

"Finish him," Lothar said quietly to the killachine before grunting in pain.

The robotic killer complied by opening a large hatch around its chest, then what appeared to be some sort of energy cannon came out and emitted ominous sounds of energy being charged up and ready to fire. Brian, who was exhausted, was on one knee when he looked up to see the cannon about to fire. "Well shit," was all Brian could say when the cannon fired.

Lightning-like particle energy came forth from the cannon and was aimed at the young man, he attempted to get up and run but fell to his knees once more while White Heart screamed at him to get up and run. Without a hope of survival he closed his eyes and awaited his fate. Strangely enough he wasn't hit, instead the blast hit something else which smashed into the young man, sending both objects flying across the ground and through some ruined buildings. Once they crashed onto another street Brian finally realised what had blocked the blast, in his arms was a badly wounded White Heart. Blood was flowing from her mouth, chest, gut and deep marks on her arms, it even seemed that her left arm was broken below the elbow, her HDD uniform was tattered and her processor units were broken.

"Blanc… why? Why did you do this?" was all Brian could ask as he continued to hold the one he loved close to him.

"Why? Because I love you, you damn idiot," replied White Heart as she chuckled before coughing.

"Yeah, I am your idiot."

"True, *cough* *cough*. Pity we couldn't finish our date, I really wanted to go and see the library. Look after Rom and Ram for me, tell them I'm sorry. I... I love you." Her eyes closed and she slummed back into his arms.

"Blanc? Blanc?! Don't die on me!" Brian began to cry as White Heart closed her eyes with a smile on her face, just then pieces of rubble fell from a nearby building and fell on top of Brian and White Heart, then there was darkness.

* * *

"Get up," a voice said to the unconscious young man. "Come on already, get up!"

Brian opened his eyes slowly to see a blue haired woman looking down at him, she had pink eyes and padded white armour around her HDD uniform. At first Brian thought it was White Heart at least a different looking White Heart at that. "Blanc? Is that you? Wait, you're not Blanc, you've got bigger breasts than she does. Who are you?"

The woman raised an eyebrow and giggled. "Seriously, that the first thing you notice about me? Me and my B cup breasts? You're definitely a weird one. But you're right, I'm not Blanc."

"Then who are you?" Brian asked once more as he began to dig himself out of the building rubble.

"I am Bellona, former CPU and founder of Lowee. I am a ghost made up of Share Energy, so don't get frightened."

"Why are you here? And where's Blanc?"

"I was originally here to keep an eye on you and Blanc, truth be told I was rather glad that the two of you hooked up. As for where she is, well… I don't know, she wasn't here when I arrived."

As Brian stood up a look of horror appeared on his face. "Tell me, when CPUs die what happens to them?"

"Speaking from first-hand experience I know that when CPUs die they disappear and turn back into what created them in the first place, in this case it is Share Energy. Why are you ask… oh, I get it."

Brian fell to the ground and ignored the raging battle that was occurring close to them, tears flowed from his eyes and his hands began to twitch as the news hit him full throttle. No… no, not like this. Why? Why did it have to be Blanc?"

Bellona sighed and knelt next to Brian. "If it makes you feel better I can help you."

"How? How can you help me?"

"Revenge. You're not the only one who wants to tear that Dark Captain apart, I consider Blanc as a daughter so I have more than enough reasons to help you."

Brian stood up alongside Bellona and sighed. "Alright, what's the plan?" Brian asked as multiple explosions went off in the distance.

"Hmm, you can absorb Share Energy, can you not?"

"I can, but what has that got to do with the plan?"

"Well, since I am merely a ghost made up of Share Energy particles perhaps you can absorb me, then together I can lend you my powers to aid you in your fight against this Dark Captain."

"You sure you want to try it? You could die."

"I'm already dead so there isn't anything to worry about. If we do survive this then I'll answer any question you may have."

"Deal." Brian raised his right hand towards Bellona as she began to dissipate into Share Energy particles, as soon as Brian touched her he began to absorb her into himself. A bright blue light engulfed the young man as he screeched in a loud tone, it was a mix of his and Bellona's voice. The bright light then expanded and exploded, sending Brian to the ground. When he got back up the young man felt something that he had never felt before: it felt as if it was unlimited power. Strange light blue marks began to appear on his flesh, the marks were a mix of swirls and lines, the ones that could be seen on his face resembled some sort of war paint. The left side of his body felt as if it was occupied by another being, the left side of his head began to warp until it resembled something akin to Bellona, including the air, even Brian's left eye turned pink with a power symbol in it. The Ancient began to chuckle as highly condensed Share Energy flowed from his feet and into the ground, the pavement began to crack apart and glow blue, his body was fully covered in condensed Share Energy that he now looked like a monster from a distance.

"Now then, time to kill!" Brian spoke, his voice sounding like a mix of his and Bellona's. He ran off down the street, leaving footprints in the pavement as Share Energy crackled and wavered of his body, the left side of his body glowed and then resembled Bellona for a moment. The young man was filled with power as well as the ability to destroy all before him, his true power had been awakened, the power of a Shadow Walker. The phoenix had been awakened.

* * *

 **A/N: Finally got his done, sorry for the wait again. Seems like shit just got real, who knows what will happen next now that Brian has been combined with Bellona and has gone apeshit crazy. Are the Goddesses still alive? Who knows. The next chapter will take some time to complete – I haven't even started it yet – but it will be completed, I assure you all. If you have any requests, or just want to ask questions, feel free to tell me, it gives me something to do that doesn't involve studying. As always have a good day readers and see you all in the next chapter.**


	51. Eternal Phoenix

**Chapter 50: Eternal Phoenix**

Noire clenched her eyes tightly shut and waited for her fate, yet nothing happened to her. Once Henderson had pulled the trigger she believed that her time was over, but that did not appear to be the case. The senior CPU opened her eyes slowly and saw something she was not expecting at all. In front of her was what appeared to be a wall made out of stone, she weakly looked over next to her right and saw a tall man covered in a black hooded coat and scarf, black gloves and dark coloured pants that seemed to be weather-worn, crumbling bits of what looked like rocks were falling in small pieces from the man's hands. Noire peered over at her younger sister and saw that a wall made of stone had surrounded her as well. The stranger turned around and looked down at Noire, his eyes flared at a wicked grin could be noticed underneath his scarf; it was Wraith.

"Missed me, Noire?" Wraith asked with a cheeky tone.

"Shut up," Noire groaned as she failed to get back up. "Our… our Share Energy is gone, I'm too weak to fight on."

"I know, that means this little brawl has to end very soon, for the meantime this will have to do." Wraith bent d own as he ignored the shouting from the opposite side, he placed his right hand on Noire's forehead and began to channel the pure Share Energy into the tsundere CPU.

"Wh...What are you doing?" Noire asked as her voice began to become quiet.

"Just giving you a piece of my Share Energy to keep you alive, don't worry, I will give some to your sister as well," Wraith replied as he continued to channel his energy into her while the nearby Dark Followers began to smash their way through the stone wall.

Noire felt a strange feeling as Wraith's pure Share Energy flowed into her, she began to feel renewed but not great enough to continue the fight against the Dark Followers, but the CPU was confused as to how Wraith could use such energy. "Wraith, how can you use Share Energy?" Norie asked. "Are you like Brian? You're definitely not a CPU."

"I'll explain later if I have a chance to do so," Wraith replied as he stood up. "For now just stay low and keep out of trouble, this won't take long… I hope."

Wraith summoned two short ghost swords in both of his hands and held them upside down as if they were daggers, just as the magically created stone wall gave way and broke down Wraith lunged forward into the mass of Dark Followers and began to carve them up with an unnatural bloodlust. The ageless god ran past one Dark Follower and sliced his throat, sending the unfortunate man to the ground to choke on his own blood, another unfortunate Dark Follower was punched in the face before being stabbed through the gut and had their bowls emptied onto the ground. One Dark Follower aimed her rifle at the tall man and fired, the bullet scraped Wraith's left arm, a small trickle of blood flowed from the wound. With utmost precision and anger Wraith threw his left short ghost sword at the Dark Follower, the ghostly blade pierced her throat and she fell to the ground dead, blood trickled from her mouth and neck as her eyes bulged.

Henderson growled as he gripped his combat shotgun firmly with his two hands, the battle was now turning against him and his remaining soldiers. Now that Wraith had joined the fight and that he had killed three Dark Followers the rest of them were uneasy about going into battle, some had already began to run away which left only Henderson and six others left to deal with their opponents, some Dark Followers were still knocked out however. Henderson and the remaining Dark Followers quickly slipped back into the wilderness to gain and advantage, but luck was not on their side. One of the surviving Dark Followers was grabbed from behind and thrown to the ground, he looked up to see Wraith glaring viciously at him before a booted foot came crashing down upon the soldier's face, one stomp was enough to shatter the skull into many fragments. Wraith walked away from the bloodied corpse and headed towards Henderson's position before he stopped a few feet away from the Dark Follower commander.

"I know you're there, I can feel your fear," Wraith said as he raised his hands and channelled the Corrupt Energy flowing through him into the palm of his hands. "If you won't come to me then my warriors will."

Henderson raised an eyebrow and watched as the hooded man channel the Corrupt Energy in his hands, Wraith was then covered in the energy as it began to flow across the battlefield, the energy entered the nearby corpses of the fallen Dark Followers just as Wraith slammed his right hand down on the grassy ground. Noire looked on as Wraith's Corrupt Energy flowed through the corpses and the CPU of Lastation watched as the dead bodies began to float and rise off the ground, the dead bodies walked over to Wraith and the remaining Dark Followers, along with the two CPUs of Lastation, looked at the corpses and saw their pale, lifeless eyes and the blood that flowed down from their mortal wounds. It was a horrible sight, not to mention unethical and frightening.

"Let's see if you have the guts to kill your fallen comrades, Dark Followers," Wraith taunted his opponents.

"Just who the hell are you?!" Henderson yelled as he opened fire at his fallen comrades.

Wraith glared at everything before him as his undead minions and the remaining Dark Followers fought it out. As Wraith spoke his voice began to become disorientated and sounded as if there was more than one person speaking, his body glowed bright blue, red and dark purple, distorted images of what appeared to be people appeared for a few seconds in Wraith's body, especially in his face. "Everyone I meet keeps asking me that damn question, so I'm going to make this very clear for you," Wraith growled. "I am Wraith, the Destroyer of Worlds, the Necromancer, the Reaper of Souls, the Oracle of Tari, the Mechanist, the Ancient God of Time and I am here to slaughter all who stand in my way! Now perish before the might of a God!"

All manner of Share Energy gathered in the clenched palms of Wraith's hands, they began to crackle and spurt forth from the hooded man's hands. As the deadly energy continued to build up around Wraith the sky began to darken and lightning sprang forth from the clouds, the fighting between the undead and the Dark Followers continued in a bloody fashion as they killed one another, limbs were severed, heads were rolling and bullets embedded themselves in undead and living flesh. Henderson snarled viciously, strapped his now empty combat shotgun onto his back, grabbed a scimitar that was strapped to his belt and charged straight at the former Oracle.

"I don't care what you call yourself, you're dead!" Henderson yelled as he ran forward, his scimitar poised to strike downwards as he neared Wraith.

"We'll see."

As Henderson was about to strike a blow against Wraith the hooded man swung his arms behind him and brought them forward swiftly, the energy that was contained in his hands surged forth and a bright beam of light erupted from Wraith, the light enveloped the sky and the land around them, everything was encased in a bright blue light. The force of the impact landed on Henderson, the Dark Follower was was smashed by it and sent flying across the ground and into a tree as the light died away, leaving craters in the ground and trees dead, the very ground around Wraith and Henderson was dead. It was clear that the fight was over. What was left of the Dark Followers ran away into the wilderness and never came back, at least to Lastation. Wraith panted for air as he ran over to Uni and channelled some of his Share Energy into her.

Once Noire found the strength to stand up she did so and walked over to her younger sister and Wraith, the senior CPU almost fell to the ground as she approached them. "You're a lot stronger than I thought, I'm glad you are on our side," Noire said to Wraith as Uni opened her eyes and groaned in pain.

"Looks can be deceiving," Wraith responded. "That simple lesson can apply to anyone."

As Noire panted for air she collapsed to the ground and held a hand to her chest and another to her stomach, Uni looked on in horror and would have cried if she had not tried to act tough. "Noire! What's going on?" Uni asked in a frenzy.

"I lent her and you some of my Share Energy, but it looks like it is about to drain away," replied Wraith. "I have to get you and her back to the Basilicom, and quickly."

"I-I can manage it…"

"No, you can barely talk, just drop the tough act and just accept help for once."

Uni grumbled but complied with Wraith's request, in a matter of moments the CPU Candidate found herself in Wraith's arms while Noire was slung over the hooded man's back with her legs intertwined with his arms. Both CPUs of Lastation were blushing like a ripe tomato when Wraith stood up and began to run north towards Lastation, his pure Share Energy engulfed him and increased his speed dramatically. As they neared the city the clouds grew darker than ever before and bright blue lightning flashed in the clouds, in the distance Wraith, Noire and Uni could see a blue light.

"Hey, Wraith, what's going on over there?" Noire asked weakly.

"It's Brian, the phoenix within him has awakened," Wraith replied, his voice becoming tense.

"Wh...What's going on there? Is Lastation alright?"

"No, it's under attack by Lothar the Bloodthirsty and everyone inside is in danger, whether from the Dark Captain or from Brian."

"What do you mean by that?" Uni asked. "And what's this about a phoenix?"

"Do you two remember what happened in Planeptune? Well, that isn't as bad as what is, or might, happen to your beloved city. As for the phoenix reference, well, it is a legend among the Ancients but it is said that every Shadow Walker in history has been born with the soul of a phoenix, once they die they are reborn in another part of time. But what I'm talking about is the power they wield, the power to ravage the land, the power to annihilate armies and cities off the face of the world. Not to mention what drives his powers: emotions, mostly his anger. I just hope we're not too late."

* * *

"Lothar, Lothar, where are you?" Brian asked in a less than sane voice as he roamed down the ruined streets of Lastation, his Share Energy flowed like a large, burning flame from his body, leaving the ground and nearby buildings cracked and ruined, his swords were drenched in blood and his coat and face was splattered with the blood of his deceased foes.

The air was filled with smoke and blood, the sky was covered in dark clouds and lightning sprang forth from the heavens, it was a dark and grim day compared to how the morning was. Lastation was in ruins. Just about everywhere in the city the battle was occurring, most of the damage had occurred in the centre, eastern and southern parts of the city where small bands of Dark Followers had been looting, pillaging and slaughtering their way around.

The Lastation Armed Forces had mobilised as much of their manpower as they could to fend off the attacks while also trying to find where the enemy headquarters was located, but with the sudden counter-attack by Lothar's killachines and the loss of White Heart – whether she was dead or had merely disappeared was not on most people's minds as most to nearly all had not heard the news – the tide of battle had turned over and over again for both sides. The Lastation soldiers also had a hard time trying to defeat, or at least kill, the Dark Followers, these soldiers of the Dark Captains were made up of ex soldiers from the Console War, monster hunters from the Guilds and malcontent locals, the ex soldiers and the hunters were the most troublesome of the whole bunch due to their experience on the field of battle, not many soldiers of Lastation had ever been in a real battle before.

Then there was the other problem that was now plaguing both sides of the battle: Brian. The Shadow Walker had gone crazy and whenever he entered a fight between the Dark Followers and the Lastation Army the Ancient would usually beat up both sides as well as a small portion of the city around them, but in the end he would usually kill the Dark Followers who fought against him – and not in a very quick and merciful way. Wherever Brian roamed death and destruction followed swiftly afterwards. Anyone could tell that there was something different about the young man, and it was not just about his change in personality, it was also his appearance. To onlookers he appeared to be some sort of ghost with flesh, like something out of the old horror tales that involved the supposed barrows around the ruined factory where the vault was located. Whatever the case the Shadow Walker was now more dangerous than ever before, and what little of his reputation that happened to be left was already sliding down the gutter.

As Brian savagery cut his way through a Dark Follower and a small escort of mobile robots armed with all manner of weapons the young man stopped and took a moment to look around his surroundings, everything around the young man was either in ruins, on fire or had been broken into and looted, several dead bodies littered the ground, some belonged to Dark Followers while others were of the Lastation Army, a small amount of bodies were citizens. Nothing like this had ever happened before, not since the days of Tari and the Ancient Era. Brian noticed one body propped up against a lamppost and decided to investigate it due to the body looking alive, when he walked up to the body it appeared to be some sort of lightly armoured citizen but on further inspection the man in question was a Dark Follower, the ten pointed star on his armoured coat's collar gave it away. The Dark Follower was indeed alive if only a bit injured, blood was flowing from his mouth and chest, his orange coloured hair was dirty.

"Hey, you, who's side are you on?" the Dark Follower asked Brian as the young man knelt down in front of him.

"Definitely not yours" Brian replied back in a harsh and cold tone, the young man then quickly grabbed the Dark Follower and swiftly stabbed him through the neck and out the back of the head with his Roman sword, the Dark Follower fell to the ground dead with a shocked and painful expression. With this done Brian got back onto his feet and resumed to roam around in his search for Lothar.

The search appeared to be in vain as no sign of Lothar could be seen, not even the killachine that Lothar was using as a mount was around the city it seemed, Brian growled viciously as he glared at everything around him. "Dammit Lothar, where the fuck are you?!" Brian shouted into the air as he held his two swords tightly.

The sounds of metal crashing into the ground was enough of an answer for the young Ancient, he swiftly turned around to see the same killachine that had supposedly killed White Heart, its large energy cannon appeared shiny despite the dark clouds that flowed over the city. On top of the killachine was Lothar, an injured Lothar at least. The Dark Captain had cracks around his chest plate and a tired expression as across his face, he wasn't fully prepared for a challenge, in fact he was just getting ready to halt the attack and retreat due to the number of casualties on his side. It was clear to the barbarian prince that getting away was not going to be an option any more now that Brian had caught up with him. Lothar sighed, gripped his war-hammer with both hands and gritted his teeth.

 _Well, no turning back now I suppose. To fight him in my state is practically a death sentence. Never mind, if I'm going to die then I'll do my best to take him with me!_

As Lothar finished lamenting his thoughts Brian stared at Lothar with the intent to kill, his grip on both his swords tightened and a malevolent smirk formed on his face. "Time to meet your maker, bastard!" Brian yelled as he charged at the killachine, its cannon prepared itself to fire.

Lothar stood in a defensive position and awaited Brian's attack, he noted how different the Ancient looked, especially concerning the strange blue markings on his flesh. The Shadow Walker ran up to the killachine, his Share Energy flowed aggressively and tore asunder the land around him, he then yelled in a bloodthirsty voice and began to strike blow after blow against the killachine's legs. The killachine swiped its legs at Brian who dodged attempt after attempt while doing his best to smash the robotic legs apart with his Share Energy encased swords, his attacks were quick and precise but the only damage inflicted were a few scratches. The young man snarled harshly and prepared to attack once more, that was the case until the killachine smashed one of its legs against him and sent him flying into a nearby tall building, a large hole in the wall was a clue to anyone about Brian's location. The young man had crashed into what looked like a business office, the rubble that made up a wall was spread all over his body, with a grumpy groan Brian threw off the brick and stone rubble and stood back onto his feet to see the killachine's energy cannon charged, aimed and ready to fire.

"Time to finish this once and for all. Time to die, Shadow Walker!" Lothar yelled at Brian as he began to laugh uncontrollably, his eyes full of bloodlust.

The young man glared at his impending doom and awaited it with his Roman gladius held in front of him, his bright blue and pink eyes flared ever more brightly than before. As the killachine's cannon prepared to fire a round of deadly energy at Brian he stood still, stared at the mighty weapon and began to search through his thoughts, more more accurately his and Bellona's thoughts. Once he did this the young man began a conversation between him and Bellona, the former CPU of Lowee.

 _Hey, got any bright ideas on how to take this thing out before the whole city, and everyone in it, is destroyed?_

 _Yeah, I have a plan actually. Let this damn monstrosity attack you, then you must use a special move to destroy the cannon._

 _Are you serious? That's impossible, even for me. Do you happen to have an attack that can do this?_

 _Of course I do, otherwise I would not have suggested this idea. Did you know that I was once called the 'Flame of the North'? It was a grand title but I received it from my favourite attack that I created, since we are sharing the same mind at the moment you can access my memories on how to use this ability, and you better do it fast._

Brian then tapped into his combined memory and began to search away. His mind was filled with all sorts of memories, many of which were not his and some of them were not pleasant. The Ancient was experiencing the life of Bellona, from the moment she was born from Share Energy to the moment she was killed my a horrible and devastating humanoid-like monster. As the killachine's energy cannon fired Brian quickly searched through some of these memories and attempted to find Bellona's special, and favourite, attack. Finally, as the energy beam was about to hit the young man he found what he was looking for, with quick precision the young man stood in a defensive position with his swords out in front of him just as the beam of energy smashed into him, the explosion that followed was not expected.

" **Burning Abyss!** " Brian shouted.

The Ancient twirled his arms around as his Share Energy covered him like a ball of blue fire, the killachine's attack was sent away into many different directions, some of which smashed into the robotic killer. The huge contraption was sent hurdling to the ground as its own attack was blasted right back at it, destroying the metal legs and very important machinery within. As the killachine crashed into the building Brian was in Lothar did his best to hang on and stay on his two feet as his robotic killer met its end, the Dark Captain growled savagely as he looked up to see a grinning madman known as Brian looking down at him..

"Pity to still see you alive, no matter, you're gonna be in pieces soon enough!" Brian snarled. "I'll bathe in your blood!"

"Let's see you try to bastard! I'll wear your skin as a leather jerkin!" Lothar responded as he cried out in a loud and blood-curdling war cry, he ran up the killachine's spine and swung his war-hammer at Brian who swung his swords at his opponent.

* * *

"Finally, we made it," Wraith panted deeply as he entered the southern district of Lastation city, the smell and vision of smoke, fire and blood was all around him and the two Lastation CPUs, both of whom had started to recover miraculously much to Wraith's surprise and suspicion.

The thousand year old man put Uni onto her feet while Noire slid off his back, they both took a moment to gaze at their surroundings and note what they saw. It was a complete mess, and it made them both utterly distraught and sad, especially for Noire who was the ruler of the country. Wraith swore that Noire would have started weeping at the sight if he did not interrupt her and the CPU Candidate. "I know it's a right old mess but there will be a chance to rebuild, if we're lucky that is," Wraith told the two raven-haired CPUs. "Still, I'm surprised that the two of you recovered so fast, how do you feel?"

"I feel as if I'm sick while my chest and gut feel as if they are on fire, but apart from that I'm alright," Noire replied, Uni nodded to agree with her older sister's answer. "Does that mean our Sharicite has been replenished? Did Brian have something to do with this?"

Wraith shook his head as several explosions went of in the distance. "No, Brian is still out there in the city fighting Lothar, I guess you can call it luck." He then gazed at the Lastation Basilicom and stared sternly at it, the hooded man hada few guesses as to what actually happened, but one name came to his mind.

 _Minerva, she must have replenished a small portion of Lastation's Sharicite crystal. A daring move, especially coming from someone like her. Still, I can only wonder what has happened to her now, I doubt she has even managed to stay in her ghost form after all of that. I better make sure that everything over there is alright._

"Noire, Uni, I'm heading over to your Basilicom, you two should go and make sure your people are alright and encourage your soldiers," Wraith told the two of them.

"What are you planning on doing over there?" Uni asked, suspicious about Wraith's motives.

"Nothing much, just making sure that your Sharicite is in good condition. Now get moving."

"No need to tell us twice already, we're on it," Noire replied haughtily.

Wraith nodded and ran towards the Basilicom, as he began to disappear Noire noticed how the hooded man was becoming slower despite using his Share Energy to go faster, the tsundere CPU sighed and looked back at her younger sister. "Uni, go to the western part of the city and make sure that everyone over there is alright, I'll be in the north if you need me. We will then regroup at the Basilicom before entering the fight," Noire told Uni.

"Alright then, good luck, Noire," Uni responded, the CPU Candidate then ran off towards the western district of Lastation city, she ran through the small piles of rubble and headed down a corner and passed out of Noire's sight.

The CPU of Lastation ran of northward along the ruined road, passing by destroyed cars, blood trails, soldiers of Lastation fighting robotic contraptions and Dark Followers, Noire's mere presence was enough for her soldiers to gather up the courage to fight back with al t he ferocity they could muster within themselves. The senior CPU of Lastation neared the Basilicom and noticed a small alleyway that led to the northern district via a quicker route, with all the strength she could muster Noire ran to the alleyway and made her way north. When Noire got out of the alleyway she quickly wished she had some back up, or at least remained hidden for a short while, standing around her were five Dark Followers, all looked badly beaten and worn out but dangerous nonetheless. The leading Dark Follower, a man in a dark purple trench coat, turned around to see Noire staring at him, he grinned and held onto his rifle tightly as the rest of the group huddled around.

"Now this is interesting, I thought you were supposed to be dead by now," the Dark Follower said. "No matter, we'll do what Henderson could not!"

Noire gritted her teeth, summoned her rapier and attempted to transform, but to no success. She stood on the street bewildered at what happened before grinning, she pointed her sword at the nearest Dark Follower and with a cocky expression the CPU got ready to fight for her life. "Come on, let's get this over with!" Noire shouted before disarming the closest Dark Follower and kicking him in the gut, sending the enemy soldier to the ground.

With all of the elegance Noire had she parried blow after blow while also simultaneously landing her attacks upon the other Dark Captians without getting so much as a scratch on her body, that was the case until only one of the Dark Followers was left. As Noire stood in front of him she smirked and held her blade towards him. "Ha, you lot weren't much of a challenge," Noire taunted before letting out a little laugh. "I hope you can do better."

The Dark Follower stared at Noire before an evil grin formed across his face. "Oh believe me, Lady Black Heart, I've already won."

"What do you mean by…" but before Noire could finish speaking several small explosions went off around her, it was caused by some sticky grenades that the Dark Follower had planted on the ground during the fight. It was enough to send the Lastation CPU flying across the ground and straight into a wall back in the alleyway, while the explosions had not done much it had succeeded in grounding the almighty tsundere CPU. Noire looked up with a painful expression to see the Dark Follower looking down at her, a knife was in his right hand and a victorious look spread across his face.

"How the mighty have fallen," the Dark Follower said while swinging his knife around in circles. "I wonder what happens to a CPU once they have the skin on their face cut off? Let's find out, shall we?"

Before Noire could protest and try to defend herself someone ran up behind the Dark Follower, grabbed and turned him around before landing a punch directly to the face, the blow sent the Dark Follower crashing into the wall, knocking him out cold. Noire looked at he now unconscious Dark Follower before looking up at her saviour – although she would never step so low as to say that the newcomer was her saviour. "Wh-Who are you?" she asked the newcomer. "Why are you here?"

"I'm just an individual trying to get through life is all," the stranger replied as they extended a hand. "Need some help?"

"I-I-I can do without any help, I can do it… ah!"

Noire attempted to get up but collapsed back to the ground, she gritted her teeth and growled in annoyance as a response. With a sigh the newcomer bent down and began to feel her left leg, much to the CPU's chagrin. "Wh-Wh-Wh-What the hell do you think you're doing?! Pervert!"

"Stay still, I'm trying to make sure that you haven't got any broken bones, this won't take long."

After a minute the stranger had felt her leg from the shins of her foot to her knee, the newcomer grunted as they got up and stretched their back. "Just as I thought, you sprained your ankle and all the up the lower leg, you're not going to be doing any more fancy combat like that again for a while," the stranger told her.

"Don't underestimate my abilities, I can heal faster than the average human."

"Lucky you then, eh? Well for the meantime you're not going to be able to fight for the rest of the day at least, even if what you said is true. If you want help I can lend it."

"I don't need your help, now you better scram and get undercover in case this battle takes your life."

"I don't fear it, there isn't much for me to loose anyway. Still, the offer for help is still on the table if your interested."

Noire grumbled and decided to swallow her pride in order to accept the newcomer's help. As the stranger held out their hand she took it and was help to her feet she noticed that her rescuer was a male, a young man at least. He had shortish dark coloured hair that could be mistaken for either black or brown depending on the situation, he wore a grey shirt underneath an open brown jacket with black lining and the Lastation symbol around the right breast, his pants were a dim dark blue colour while he also wore a pair of dirty white shoes with black and grey lining. The young man had a caring expression across his face as he helped Noire walk back onto the street, his right arm was around her waist while his left was supporting her left around that was behind his neck.

"Alright then, where too?" he asked her.

"To the Basilicom," Noire replied weakly and with utter embarrassment as her face turned bright red.

"The Basilicom? Do you work there?"

"Sort of, I'm the CPU."

The helpful stranger was stunned into silence and stopped walking to stare directly at Noire, the two of them stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity before the newcomer started to stammer. "O-O-Oh Goddess! S-S-Sorry about all this!"

Noire looked bashfully at him before gazing at the ground. "I-I-It doesn't matter, b-b-but this doesn't mean that I am grateful or anything so don't get any weird ideas!"

"Huh, so you're a tsundere, Lady Black Heart?."

"S-Shut up! I am not a tsundere! Now hurry up and take me to the Basilicom."

"Alright, alright, just hold on. Still, you seem to fit the tsundere part quite well."

"I said shut up."

The two hobbled down the road towards the Basilicom, along the way no one said a single word to each other, all that could be heard was the noises from the battle and Noire's ragged breathing. It was not until they almost reached the Basilicom that the silence was broken by the CPU. "Um, can you tell me your name? I-It isn't because I'm interested in knowing it or anything."

"The name's Hiroshi. Hiroshi Fujita," the young man replied back.

"Hiroshi… um, nice to meet you, Hiroshi."

"Yeah, good to meet you too, Lady Black Heart."

"You can call me Noire if you want to, everyone else I know calls me that."

"Alright then, Noire. Hey, looks like we're here now."

Noire and Hiroshi arrived at the front entrance of the Basilicom, or what was left of it anyway, a huge hole took the place of the front entrance. Small amounts of glass littered the area as well as huge piles of building rubble, it even seemed as if some blood was spread across the place. Inside they saw Rom in her HDD form and a wounded Kei, a bloodied bandage was wrapped around her head and parts of her outfit were in shreds, then there was what appeared to be Wraith far in the background talking to a womanly figure with silver hair, a black dress and padded armour, she soon disappeared and the hooded man came into the reception area to see Noire and Hiroshi enter.

"Now this is unexpected, to see the almighty CPU of Lastation being helped by one of her citizens, how funny," Wraith chuckled as he watched them walk in.

"Oh shut up, Wraith," Noire growled back as she was help down onto a chair thanks to Hirsohi, she blushed at him before breaking into a small smile. "Th-Thanks, Hiroshi, I owe you."

"No need to worry about that," Hiroshi replied, he then looked up at Wraith and appeared to be a bit frightened at the sight. "Um, who's this?"

"That's Wraith, he's… a companion of sorts towards Brian," Noire explained.

"If you wish to call it that," Wraith said. "Anyway, Noire, your Sharicite has been replenished, just wait here and heal up while your new friend can go and inform the people that their senior CPU is still alive."

"Um, alright then, if you say so," Hiroshi said as he began to walk outside to go one his mission. "Um, bye, Noire."

"Yeah, see you later, Hiroshi," Noire replied.

As Hiroshi smiled and ran back out of the Basilicom Kei walked over to Noire and began to make sure that she was alright, meanwhile Wraith sighed and fell to the ground, exhausted and completely drained of energy. "Dammit, this is going to take a while," Wraith muttered to himself as his head began to feel as if it would explode – the three seals in his mind were beginning to become undone. He looked up to see a worried Rom looking down at him, she held her staff tightly and was about to use her healing magic on him until he interrupted her. "No, don't use your magic on me, I'll be fine, just go out there and look for Brian, this battle is about to be over soon. Tell him the news."

"A-Alright then, but where can I find him?" Rom asked.

"Just look for a young man that appears to be like a phoenix. Now go."

* * *

Brian and Lothar clashed atop the ruined killachine, sparks flew from their weapons as they smashed into one another, both parried blow after blow as they tried to kill each other. "Just die already!" Lothar yelled as he swung his war-hammer at Brian once he sidestepped past the young man.

Brian ducked and brought his head up and smashed the top of his head against Lothar's chin, sending the Dark Captain up in the air. "A day may come when I shall die and break all forms of friendships then, but it is not this day!" Brian yelled, changing a quote from one of his favourite films.

"Well fuck you!" Lothar yelled back as he regained his balance. " **Blood Ankh!** " Lothar held up his left arms and extended his hand towards Brian, then nearby blood from the ground floated up and began to swirl around the barbarian prince. "Let's see you dodge this."

Lothar grinned and sent the large amount of swirling blood towards Brian, the young man dodged time and time again in order to get away, but eventually the blood smashed into him in a large, blood red ball that floated in the air. Lothar looked satisfied with the result and calmly walked up to it, his left hand still held towards it. "You won't last long, you'll die once my hand clenches tightly," Lothar explained.

Just as the Dark Captain was about to clench his left hand tightly a bright. Blue light began to engulf the blood ball, it did not take long for Brian to burst out and glare viciously at Lothar. The Dark Captain noticed that Brian looked like two different people occupying the same body, the markings on his skin glowed more brightly and he seemed ready to kill. " **Shadow Walker Secret Art: Eternal Phoenix!** " Brian shouted.

The Ancient was encased with a huge amount of Share Energy as it began to take on a form, the form of a bright, blue phoenix. It was as if it had came out of legend, the creature roared I na high pitched noise as Brian roared in an untranslatable war cry. His hands and swords were encased with the energy as well as his feet, he then charged at Lothar with unparalleled speed, striking blow after blow at the barbarian. As Lothar was sent back Brian head-butted him before jumping into the and roundhouse kicked the Dark Captain in the face, lothar was thus sent flying off and away from the destroyed killachine.

"I'm not done with you yet," Brian told Lothar as he jumped after him, he kneed the Captain in the chest and repeatedly stabbed him again and again with his swords.

As Lothar fell to his death he said only one thing. "My life for the Dark Lord." The last vestige of his life was brought to and end when Brian erupted in a bright light and blue phoenix fire burst forth, Lothar was caught up in it and the now charred barbarian prince fell to the ground wit ha smirk on his face.

Once he crashed into the ground, leaving a crater around him, Brian did not stop his relentless attack. The young man landed next to Lothar and began to mutilate him, laughing as he did so. For several minutes he slashed and hacked away at the lifeless corpse of Lothar, not caring whether people were watching or that he was giving in to madness. Brian raised his right foot and was about to bring it down upon Lothar's face when all of a sudden something, or someone, tackled him to the ground and resulted in his crashing next to a brick wall and his swords were dropped. He looked up and was about to strike his attacker when he recognised the person, it was Rom, and she was crying out of fear.

"Big brother, that's enough, he's dead, stop this" Rom told Brian as she laid on his, her face streaming with tears and her expression filled with fear.

"Get out of my way," was all Brian said as he tried to fling Rom off him.

"Stop this, please! There isn't anything else you can do."

"But he killed Blanc, and for that I'll crush him until there's nothing left of him!"

"Blanc's alive, she's in the Basilicom with Ram being healed up. Please, stop this, you're scaring me."

As soon as Brian heard the news he began to calm down, his Share Energy died away as well as the markings, his eyes returned to normal and he began to pant deeply for air. The young man looked down at Rom to see her still crying, in response he sat up against a nearby wall, put Rom in his lap facing him and patted her head while he began to look pleased yet also saddened as he wiped away Rom's tears. "Rom, I'm… I'm sorry about before, I truly am. I didn't mean to get out of control like that, guess there's still some things about me that even I don't know about."

His 'little sister' smiled in response and wrapped her arms around him while also burying her face in his chest. "Don't worry about it, big brother. Let's get back to the Basilicom before they start to worry."

"Alright then, oh, one last thing." Brian moved aside some strands of hair from Rom's forehead before leaning in and pressing his lips against her soft skin, a second later he leaned back from kissing her forehead and saw how Rom was blushing. "That's for helping me come to my senses, thank you," Brian thanked Rom.

Rom stammered at first before beaming a bright smile at him, her arms tightened around Brian – much to his discomfort. "I love you, big brother," Rom declared happily as her face pressed up against Brian's chest again.

"I love you too, Rom, thanks again. Now, let's head back."

* * *

As the fire died away and the sounds of guns, cannons and shouting dimmed into nothing Hiroshi sighed with relief and collapsed onto the ground in an exhausted state, he was completely worn out. He had no idea that the day would have played out like it did, no one could have expected such a thing to occur, but he was grateful that they had the Shadow Walker as well as the CPUs of Lastation and Lowee, he had even bumped into Noire, Lady Black Heart herself. Hiroshi had a feeling that he would see her again some time in the near future, and he looked forward to it, at least partially, the young man was not quite sure about his opinion towards Noire's tsundere nature.

"What a tsudnere, still, it was nice to meet her in person, not many people can say that," Hiroshi said to himself.

The young man was in a semi-ruined alleyway, weeds grew out of the pavement and rubble from nearby damaged buildings littered the area, but compared to the rest of the city it was a quiet place. Hiroshi definitely had an interesting day, but it was about to get a little more crazier. The first thing he noticed was a strange scent in the air, it was more like an aura – a deathly aura as it reeked of death. As the young man looked towards his left he noticed how the weeds began to whither and die, then came the heavy footsteps, it sounded like a walking tank, as if there was someone wearing a suit of heavy armour with lots of chainmail. Soon enough the source of it all was revealed.

It appeared to be a tall man who was wearing a dark grey cloak with a hood of the same colour over his head, he had a steel chest plate with chainmail underneath that reached from his neck, arms and all the way down to his waist, steel gauntlets and boots with leather pieces could also be seen, even thin steel and leather shoulder plates were being worn as well as some steel and leather pieces on his arms and legs. Whoever he was it was clear that he was not a local. The heavily armoured man also had multicoloured eyes, his left was brown while his right was dark red, his hair was hidden underneath the hood, there was no facial hair that could be seen and the expression that he gave off was one filled with malice, the armoured man also had three long scars running down the right side of his face. He was about to walk past Hiroshi when he stopped and looked at him as the young man stood up quickly. It was then that the armoured stranger spoke.

"Pwy wyt ti? Beth yw enw'r lle hwn?" the stranger asked in a completely different language, strangely enough it sounded somewhat soothing, Hiroshi stared at him flabbergasted and did not utter a single noise. Once again the stranger spoke. "Pam na wbewch chi ateb? A allwch chi hyd yn oed yn siarad yn y Hynafol Tafod?"

Once more Hiroshi was dumbfounded at what the man was trying to say, it didn't make any sense to him whatsoever. Soon afterwards the armoured stranger sighed and, with a disgruntled sigh, began to speak once more. "You do not answer. Must I use this guttural language of yours?"

"Wh-Wh-Who are you?" Hiroshi asked as the man stared at him sternly.

"My name is not important at this time, but who are you?"

"I'm Hiroshi Fujita of Lastation."

"Hiroshi Fujita of Lastation? Well at least I have now got a name for this wretched city." The man stared straight at Hiroshi's eyes, what he was trying to do was beyond the young man.

"Um, what are you doing?" Hiroshi asked nervously.

"Just checking something. Ah yes, you will do."

"What do you mean by that?"

The only response that Hiroshi was given was a swift punch to the gut that sent him to the ground, he leaned up against the wall and gasped for air. The armoured man then removed Hiroshi's jacket and lifted up his shirt before placing his right hand up against his chest. " **Negyddol Hegni Enaid Marc!** "

A burst of energy entered Hiroshi and began to swirl around his body, he would have screamed if it had not been for the armoured man holding him down, the painful ordeal lasted around a minute before the man put Hiroshi's shirt back down, a small, dark blue circle with various strangle markings - one even looked like and octagon - was on his chest He stood up and cracked his fingers before looking back down at the young man. "Before I go you must learn a few rules. One, do not tell anyone about that mark. Two, never tell anyone about me. Three, you must not unleash the power I have given you by becoming angry, it will lead to you breaking rules one and two. Four, you are bound to me, therefore you are a servant of mine."

"Wh...what does this all mean?" Hiroshi asked weakly.

"It will all become clear in the end, when the sky rains fire. Anyway, as the people here would say, have a good day." As the armoured man walked away, taking with him the stench of death, Hiroshi was too tired to understand what happened or why he was chosen to bear such a mark, or what the man was talking about. In the end Hiroshi sighed and remained on the ground, cursing his bad luck for getting involved with a possible madman who spoke another language.

* * *

 **A/N: Thank you HDNftw for the character Hiroshi, just a little dedication to an awesome guy. Once again I apologise for the wait, it is starting to get harder to find time to start and finish chapters, but I am managing… somehow. Anyway, I think things might get easier now that most of the main fights have been completed so my wild imagination can take a break, although I may need it for the upcoming lemon chapter (or chapters if you readers want to read, and visualise, more than one). Speaking of lemons I am still open to suggestions regarding which characters you want to see. Thank you readers for reading this and have a great day if possible.**

 **PS: I have been thinking about creating an alternative version of The Rising Darkness where at a certain point in the story something else happens, thus creating a whole new yet similar timeline. Let me know about your thoughts on this, I do have something in mind but it's a far off project.**


	52. The Aftermath - Part 1

**Chapter 51: The Aftermath – Part 1**

The chirping of birds and the bright rays of sunlight was what woke Henderson from his painful slumber, as the ex soldier opened his eyes he tried to move his arms and legs but found himself unable to do so, instead of moving his limbs there was only pain – lots of pain. Henderson then felt a huge sting of pain coming from his insides, it felt as if something had pierced through his stomach, lungs or liver, or perhaps all of them at once. As Henderson yelled out in pain he coughed out some blood that painted the grass next to him, it was a painful ordeal.

"S...Screw that… Wraith guy," Henderson mumbled in pain, his words weak and quiet. "How… how is he… so powerful? And what… is he?"

"That is something we all would like to know," a voice told Henderson, the tone sounded flamboyant and full of life. The ex soldier painfully looked up to his right to see the last person he expected on the remains of a battlefield: Anonydeath. The pinkish, robotic suited man was floating off the ground due to his suit and was looking down at Henderson as he approached him, once Anonydeath reached the soldier he waved at him. "Hi, how's it going?"

"How's it going? How's it going?! Look at the state of me you asshole! Screw you! If I could only just… ack!" The ex soldier of Lastation coughed up some more blood and began to beath I nand out quickly.

"Stay still already, and don't get angry just because I was being nice to you." Anonydeath landed on the ground and knelt next to Henderson, the robotic pervert then began to feel his way around Henderson's body to feel if anything was out of place, as he did this the soldier could hear almost quiet miserable mumbles coming from the robotic suit's voicebox. Eventually after several minutes Anonydeath sighed and shook his head. "I'm afraid it isn't good, you've snapped a good deal of your bones."

"Yeah, tell me something that I don't already know about, doc," Henderson asked sarcastically.

Anonydeath, ignoring the sarcasm coming from his companion, continued to deliver his verdict. "You'll have to have surgery as soon as possible."

"Where though? Is… Lastation… safe?"

"No, the battle of there is lost for us. Lothar is dead, the killachines are destroyed, the Dark Followers are either dead or have fled to the far corners of Gamindustri and our headquarters in the south-east area of Lastation has been occupied by the Lastation army."

"So… we're fucked then?"

"Not really, I did manage to get this off Lothar before he got himself killed by the Shadow Walker." Anonydeath then placed a small bag on the ground – which was originally hanging on his left arm – and began to scrounge through, in a matter of seconds he pulled out a small box covered in carvings of monsters that roamed around Gamindustri. It was a Share Energy Container, and it was glowing in a bright blue energy. Henderson's eyes widened and a grin formed on his face.

"Well, at least there's one good piece of news *cough*, so where to next?"

"Haruno Village. We will get you fixed up… hopefully."

"We? Who's we?" Henderson asked as Anonydeath put the Share Energy Container back in the bag, slung it over his left arm and picked Henderson up off the ground as carefully as he could. The ex soldier looked over at the ground near them and saw the bloodied corpses of his fallen comrades, their blood stained the grassy tree lands of the southern Lastation countryside. He looked away and muttered a prayer to their souls.

Anonydeath ignored the dead, bloodied and mutilated bodies near them and chose to answer Henderson's question as he began to walk – or float – in a south-west direction. "We as in me, the surviving Dark Captains, Arfoire and whoever happens to be there. We better get moving, we are not going to be alone here for much longer, not to mention that Lastation is going to get a lot of attention for the next few days, or weeks."

* * *

Brian sat on a cushioned, wooden chair next to a bed covered in black and white sheets, lying in the bed was Blanc. The CPU of Lowee was covered in bandages around her head, left arms, waist and parts of her legs, she was wearing her dress while her coat, hat, shoes and other accessories were piled neatly together on a nearby desk. Blanc was asleep and was very still, no one could see her move a single muscle as she slept. Brian sighed and clasped his left hand with Blanc's right hand, he looked relieved that she was alive yet also depressed about what had happened to her, he did see it happen after all. The young man felt someone gently place a hand on his right shoulder, he looked around to see Rom with a worried expression.

"It's alright, big brother, Blanc will be fine, the doctors said so," Rom told Brian.

"I know that, I just can't help but worry," responded Brian, the young man then pulled out the small photo he and Blanc took in the photo booth earlier in the day and stared at it, his teeth clenched and his hands began to twitch. "She was so happy, it was as if all our problems just disappeared and left us with pure joy. Then Lothar and his Followers came, and I nearly lost her. A piece of one of my fears could have come true if she hadn't been saved while I was unconscious."

As tears formed in Brian's eyes and began to flow down his cheeks Rom hugged him tightly, the young Candidate's face was pressed up against Brian's, her own tears became one with his. Rom looked down at the photo and noticed how embarrassed yet happy Blanc and Brian were together in the booth. "Everything will be alright, big brother, it has to be," Rom told him.

"Yeah, everything will be fine, big bro, I just know it," Ram reassuringly told Brian and Rom as she walked up to them from her position on the other side of Blanc's bed, Ram had a bandage around her right arm. "What do you say, Wraithy? Is Blanc gonna be ok?"

"Firstly, the name is Wraith, not Wraithy. Secondly, I am fairly sure Blanc will be fine, she just needs to rest for a while, at least a week or two before she returns to full strength," Wraith replied as he continued to lean up against the wall. "Still, it's a miracle that she survived with those wounds, that little goddess of yours is a hardy person indeed, Brian."

Brian chuckled in amusement as he looked at Blanc before turning his gaze at Wraith. "Yeah, I guess so. Hey, just a thought, but did you save her, Wraith?"

Wraith shook his head. "No, I did not. I was still outside of Lastation helping Noire and Uni, I could not have saved her at the same time."

"So who saved her?" Brian gazed around the room, looking at Wraith, Rom and Ram. Eventually Ram walked up next to Brian and looked down at him, her arms were behind her back.

"Me and Rom were in the reception area when Blanc returned, but someone was carrying her," Ram told Brian. Ram then began to explain what happened during that moment earlier in the day.

* * *

 _The Basilicom had been badly damaged, pieces of walls had crumbled, ceilings had fallen apart and the floor was cracked, blood stained the area and a mix of lifeless and wounded bodies of fallen guards and Dark Followers littered the ground. Rom and Ram, both in their HDD forms, had done their best to fight off Lothar and his Dark Followers as well as the killachine that was outside, but to no avail. Lothar and his soldiers fought, and slaughtered, their way through the limited number of guards in the Basilicom and made their way to the Sharicite Room. With Lothar stealing the Share Energy of Lastation it was left to Rom and Ram to fight off the Dark Followers._

" _ **Ice Coffin!** " Ram shouted, sending ice shards up from the ground and into a condensed group of Dark Followers, the attack hit them head on and sent them crashing into the wall, one Follower even smashed through it. "Hey, Rom, you alright over there?"_

 _Rom nodded. "Uh huh, I'm alright."_

 _The young CPU Candidate blocked an incoming blow from a Dark Follower who snarled at the Candidate, Rom began to shudder in fear at the sight of a bloodthirsty Dark Follower with the intent to kill her. Ram flew quickly over to her twin sister and attempted to fight the Follower and beat him up. But despite it all Ram was too slow to react to what happened next. The Dark Follower kicked Rom away and slashed his serrated sword at Ram, the sword ran across her right arm and stopped the Candidate in her tracks, giving time for the Follower to kick her away. As he prepared to deal the killer blow a sword ran threw his stomach, blood flowed down his legs and onto the ground. As the sword was removed and the Follower fell to the ground Ram looked up to see Kei holding the bloodied sword with a tired and pained expression on her face, trickles of blood dripped from a head wound._

" _Are you two alright?" Kei asked the Candidates of Lowee._

" _I-I think so," Ram responded as she got up off the ground while holding her wounded arm as Rom walked up to them._

" _Are you alright, Miss Kei?" Rom asked._

" _Yeah, I'll be fine," Kei replied as she leaned against a nearby desk. "Lothar is gone, his killachine smashed a hole into the Sharicite Room and got away with the Share Energy, we have survived but I don't know for how long now that Norie and Uni have been separated from their power."_

" _What should we do then?" Rom asked as she began to wipe away the blood off from Kei's head as Ram searched for medical supplies._

" _We will have to hold out here and tend to the wounded as best we can, let's hope that Blanc, Brian and the army can deal with the battle at hand until we get information concerning the others."_

 _And so they waited in the reception area of the Basilicom, Kei cleared up the dead bodies while Rom and Ram did their best to heal up the wounded guards, those who were able to resume fighting were told by the Lastation Oracle to venture out in the city and round up the civilians who were caught up in the battle and take them to the Basilicom. Eventually citizens who had failed to find refuge in the western and northern districts of Lastation city made their way to the Basilicom where they were treated for any wounds before being sent up to the higher levels of the tall building to recuperate, wounded soldiers also started to arrive once they received word that the Basilicom was secure from the enemy. Those who were badly wounded were taken up to the medical facility of the Basilicom while those who could be healed quickly by Rom's and Ram's healing magic were sent back into the fray. However, whenever people were asked about Noire and Uni they all responded with the same answer: no one had seen them. It was the same with Brian and Blanc, they were last reported to have been fighting against Lothar the Bloodthirsty and his killachine but soon afterwards there was no sign of them._

 _As the reception area was cleared out of the wounded and those seeking refuge Kei sighed and looked outside, she noticed how the sky was much darker and bright blue lights were converging around one sight, it did not seem like a good omen to the troubled Oracle. Shards of bright blue energy appeared to roam around the place and destroy the area, at least that is what Kei was thinking. Not long afterwards Rom and Ram returned, still in their HDD forms, and saw Kei looking outside, a troubled expression on her face. Before either of the Lowean Candidates could talk to Kei all three of them could sense something, something unnatural. The stench of death flew into their nostrils, it did not smell like dead bodies but it still smelled like death, it was as if all life would die if exposed to the deathly aura for too long._

" _What is this feeling?" Kei asked herself. "It feels as if there's someone, or something, out there that is death incarnate."_

 _Her question was shortly answered by the unexpected arrival of a strange man, the deathly aura seemed to flow around him and kill off any living plant life that was around the Basilicom, the man approached the Basilicom and entered the building, he was carrying someone familiar over his right shoulder. The man was wearing steel and leather plate armour over his chest, shoulders, steel armguards, gauntlets, pieces of steel on his legs and steel armoured boots, his right eye was red while his left eye was brown and three long scars ran down the right side of his face, the pupil in his right eye was odd as it was shaped like a cat's, he also wore a grey hood and cloak. The person he was carrying over his right shoulder was none other than Blanc, her clothes were dirty and ragged._

" _Big sis!" Ram yelled as she ran over to the armoured man, but the deathly aura stopped her from getting close to him._

 _The stranger glanced at Blanc and then back at Ram before grunting in a different language - so it seemed - before moving the little goddess off his shoulder and onto his right arm, he then swung his arm forward and let Blanc crash onto the ground and roll towards Rom, Ram and Kei. The twin sister looked in horror as Blanc lied on the ground before them in a limbless state, Kei glanced at the CPU of Lowee before looking back at the stranger, who now happened to be walking out of the Basilicom without a care in the world. The Oracle stopped herself from trying to get answers out of him and did her best to prevent either Rom or Ram to go after him, although Kei did notice one thing that made her question who the man was. On the back of the grey cloak was an emblem in the shape of a phoenix._

* * *

As soon as Ram had finished explaining the story Brian patted the Candidate on the head gently before turning his attention towards Wraith, the hooded man seemed to be pondering what he had just heard. "Wraith, does this guy sound familiar to you?" Brian asked him.

Unfortunately for the young man Wraith shook his head. "No, it doesn't strike a bell at all I'm afraid. Although, the way that Ram described him is rather odd."

"How so?"

"Well, for a start, the pupil in his right eye is not normal, it isn't human-like at all, it's more daemon-like. Secondly, the three scars on the right side of his face do not ring a ball. Thirdly, why does he have a phoenix for a symbol on his cloak? It doesn't make sense to me."

"Why is that, Mr Wraith?" Rom asked as she looked at him, her arms still wrapped around Brian.

"Because the phoenix is a symbol of the Ancients, a sign of their power and the legends that surround the magical beasts and the Royal Bloodline of the Ancients. Ram, was there anything else about this stranger you can tell me?"

As Brian pondered Wraith's words about the Royal Bloodline of the Ancients Ram shook her head in response to Wraith's question. "No, 'fraid that's it."

"I thought so," Wraith sighed. "Anyway, it will be something that I'll keep an eye out for."

With the conversation concluded Rom turned her full attention back to Brian, her expression filled with wonder. "Hey, big brother, why does your left eye have a power symbol? Are you a CPU?"

Brian shook his head. "Nah, just a side effect from the battle, that's all." It wasn't the truth but the young man could not just expose to Rom and Ram that he had merged with the former CPU of Lowee, she had wanted to keep herself a secret from everyone else, and Brian was just doing his part.

Brian looked over at Wraith and caught his attention, the hooded man nodded and walked over to the young man and the Candidate who was hugging him."Mind if I borrow your big bro for a moment?" Wraith asked Rom.

"Um, alright then," Rom replied as she let go of Brian and watched as he stood up.

"Don't worry about me, Room, I'll be back soon," Brian told Rom before patting her gently on the head, causing her to beam in a bright smile. As Wraith and Brian headed towards the door Rom ran up to them and looked at the Ancient with an embarrassed look.

"Can you bend down please?" Rom asked with her puppy dog eyes in full effect, with a shrug the young man bent down with his face near Rom. What happened next stunned everyone in the room except Wraith – he had a hard time trying to keep himself from chuckling. Rom quickly leaned towards Brian and her soft lips touched his right cheek, the kiss lasted only a second and Rom withdrew back into Brian's viewing, both of their faces were completely red while Ram was flabbergasted - not to mention also jealous. "People kiss when they love each other, right?" Rom reasoned.

"Hey! No fair! I wanna do that! I wanna do that!" Ram yelled in frustration as she waved her arms around.

"Come on, Brian, we better get moving before those two start having a contest of some sorts where you are the prize," Wraith told Brian.

The young man nodded and, as Rom and Ram argued with each other, the two men sneaked out of Blanc's room and out into the hallway. Once they made it into a nearby storage room Brian sat down on an old, dusty desk and sighed deeply. "Phew, thanks for getting me out of there, Wraith," Brian thanked the hooded man.

"No problem, I could tell that there was something you wanted to talk to me about, but did you want to ask me questions before or after I split you and Bellona back into two separate minds and bodies?"

"Hmm, I figured you would have guessed it by now. I'm sure that Bellona would want to become separate, as do I."

"Good, good, then I better get stared." Wraith raised his right hand and placed it onto Brian's forehead, closed his eyes and began to channel his energy into the young man's mind. Brian could feel Wraith searching through his mind, and it was painful. Wraith looked at him sternly. "Stay still would ya? I'm trying to do something that could very well blow your brain into smithereens."

"S-Sorry, its just that I'm not good with pain… ow!" Brian explained as a tinge of pain erupted in his head.

"Just stay focused, and don't do anything else."

The pain that came afterwards was excruciating for Brian. Wraith's energy surged into the Ancient's mind and began the process of separating Brian and Bellona, but it felt as if the young man's mind was being tortured and in the process of being torn to shreds from within. He would have yelled out if his words were not stuck in his throat – such was the painful sensation that vibrated not only though his head but also his entire body. The left side of Brian's body glowed in a blue light and an image of Bellona appeared for a few seconds, she too appeared to be in abject pain. Brian's eyes flared up with Share Energy before his entire body was lit up like a blue candle fire, as the painful ordeal reached its climax the strange, bright blue markings formed on Brian's flesh, Wraith stared at them and smirked.

 _Looks like he has truly reached his full potential, I'll have to thank Bellona for lending some of her power to him, and I would thank Lothar for pissing Brian off thus enabling him to use his power but that would piss me off. Ah, good, nearly done with the extraction process, just need a little more force… sorry about this, Brian._

Wraith applied a large amount of force into the extraction process and his energy shot through every system in Brian's body, the pain was unbearable for him. Eventually Brian felt something leave him and the pain began to subside. The young man collapsed to the ground and looked over to his left to see Bellona lying next to him in an exhausted state, her eyes were closed and her breathing pattern was all over the place. "There, you feeling better, Brian and Bellona?" Wraith asked as he breathed in and out deeply.

"Y-Yeah, I think so," Brian replied as sat up, to his amazement he saw Bellona starting to disappear in a bright, blue mist, similar to Share Energy in a mist form. The CPU ghost opened her eyes and winked at the young man with a seductive expression on her face.

"I'll be seeing you later tonight, kiddo," Bellona informed the Ancient as she disappeared into thin air, leaving Brian blushing in response.

"Um, Wraith, was she just hitting on me?" Brian asked the former Oracle.

"Hard to say really, I've known her for a long time and all that I know about that CPU is that she's a pervert, she can be sarcastic at times as well as having a serious personality too, although she his kind as well. You should be fine though, Bellona is rather supportive in your relationship with Blanc. I think all she wants to talk about will refer to what happened today, just be careful though."

Brian raised an eyebrow as he stood up and stretched his back. "Thanks for the advice. Anyway, thanks for that, wasn't sure you could pull it off."

"You had a lot to worry about, it was my first time doing something like that before."

Brian stared at Wraith and sighed. "Should be glad I'm alive then."

"Indeed you should, but I knew you could get through it alive." Wraith walked towards the door before looking back at the Ancient. "Come on, we better get back before they start to look for us. I know you have some questions that you want answered but leave that for later, at least for tomorrow anyway, I've still got to rest and restore what energy I have left."

Brian nodded and together the two men walked out of the room and back into the hallway, as they returned to Blanc's room the sounds of raised voices entered their ears, it sounded like Rom, Ram and Uni. When Brian and Wraith poked their heads into the room they saw a depressed Rom, a grumpy Ram and an annoyed Uni. Once the two men entered the dimly lit room Uni turned around and sighed.

"About time you two showed up, where the hell did you two go anyway?" the tsundere Candidate asked them with her arms crossed in front of her.

"Just clearing some things up," Wraith replied as he leaned up against the wall while Rom and Ram attached themselves to Brian. "Why does it matter to you?"

"It matters because there's a lot of people outside the Basilicom, they're reporters and are trying to gather information for the news, both TV and radio."

Wraith appeared tense and glance3d away from the CPU Candidate. "I don't care what you tell them, just leave me out of it, I don't want people to know that I am around."

"What? But people saw you in Lowee..."

"That was different, just leave me out of this."

The hooded man got off the wall and walked out of the room, leaving Uni by herself with Brian, Rom and Ram. She sighed and looked over at the brown haired trio to see Brian sitting down on a chair next to Blanc's bed wit ha book in his right hand, his left arm was around Ram, who was sitting on his lap, while Rom was leaning over his right shoulder. Uni hated to do it bur she had to interrupt the reading session and tell Brian the news. The tsundere Candidate approached the small group and looked down at them.

"Sorry to interrupt this but you should know that there are some reporters outside talking with Noire and Kei about the events that occurred today," Uni informed Brian as he looked up at her. They will no doubt start to pressure my sister into letting them talk with you and Blanc – if she ever wakes up soon that is."

Brian growled and closed the book after putting a piece of paper in between the pages as a bookmark. "Is that so? Then I better take the initiative and talk top them myself."

"Are you sure about that? Their questions may not be the nicest."

"I know that, but I just want to have some piece and quiet so I'll talk to them and make them go away." As Ram got off the young man's lap and took his book the twins and Uni looked at Brian as he left the room with an annoyed expression, all three Candidates were worried about him – even though Uni would not admit it.

* * *

"I'm afraid that's all I can say for now, please just leave us to our business for the day," Noire told the reporters at the entrance of the Basilicom, but to no avail as the large group continued to ask question after question.

As Noire sighed internally she pitied herself, the CPU had never had to put up with something like this before. The CPU of Lastation was wearing her usual attire but her left ankle was bandaged up thanks to Hiroshi, a tired expression was on her face as she was bombarded by question after question. Noire looked over at Kei and saw the Oracle shrug her shoulders, even she was oblivious at what to do with the large number of reporters.

The questions that they kept asking concerned about what will happen to Lastation now that the battle was over, how will this affect the future of Gamindustri as a whole, what happened to her and Uni when the Dark Captain and the Dark Followers attacked, when the repairs will occur and where is Brian the Shadow Walker. For some reason the one who was asking that question the most was a little blonde girl in a pink, frilly dress which made her look like a magical girl. It was Abnes and she was on a mission: to use the battle in Lastation as proof that the CPUs have no right to rule and that Brian was a major villain that needed to stand trial for his crimes.

"Can everyone just please leave for the day and come back another time, this isn't a good time to be interviewed," Noire told the reporters.

"And why is that? Trying to hide the real villain are you?" Abnes asked with a wicked grin.

"No, I'm not hiding anything, this just isn't a good time to talk at the moment. Besides, aren't you a bit too young to be a reporter anyway?" Noire retorted.

"Hey, I'm older than I look!"

"Clearly. Just get moving already, there are some things that need to be cleared up."

"Grrrr, being disrespected by a CPU is bad enough, but trying to hide that damn Shadow Walker in your Basilicom and praise him as a hero while he dates that little CPU from Lowee is the last straw!" Abnes forced her way past Noire and marched down the corridor towards the elevator, she ignored the angry protests from Noire who alled for her guards to escort the little girl out. Just as Abnes reached the elevator the doors opened and the target of her verbal attacks appeared, Brian had arrived and he was not in a good mood, especially when he spotted Abnes.

"Well ain't this annoying, what do you want you little brat?" Brian demanded in a rude tone.

"To reveal the truth about you of course," came the reply. "Whether you like it or not the people will know what you really are: an evildoer."

"Is that so? Well, you could say that I am an evildoer, but only to those who annoy the shit out of me!" As Brian's temper increased his eyes flared with Share Energy and his body was encased with the blue energy, the markings began to appear slowly as he glared at his opponent. "Get out of here and never come back, or you will know why I am a death bringer."

That was enough for Abnes to back off in fear, her face started to sweat and her fingers trembled, it was as if he was burning through her very soul, finally the 'little girl' ran for her life and bolted out the entrance back into the streets of Lastation city. Everyone's gaze were laid upon Brian as he approached Noire, Kei and the large group of reporters, his eyes flared brightly at them as he stood next to the Lastation CPU and gazed at the crowd before them. Much to everyone's surprise, and delight, Brian seemed to calm down as his eyes returned to normal and the Share Energy around his body disappeared.

"Now then, is there anything else you reporters want to ask?" Brian asked the group, his arms crossed before him and his eyes glaring at them.

"Um, just one thing," a reporter replied weakly. "What are you?"

"I am Brian the Shadow Walker, the last of the Ancients, foretold by a prophecy from a bygone era, hate me if you wish but do not hate the Goddesses. Now, is there anything else?" The looks and shaking of heads pleased the young man, a small smile broke out across his face in response to this. "Well, if that's everything then leave. Lady Black Heart over here will be busy with rebuilding Lastation city tomorrow, she and her sister have done everything they can do already to help every single citizen of this nation."

With that over and done with the reporters dispersed and the entrance of the Basilicom was empty once more, Noire sighed with relief as the last of the reporters disappeared out of view and looked over at Brian, a smile was on her face. "Thanks for that, Brian. B-B-But don't get me wrong, i-it's not like I'm grateful or anything!"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever you say, just remember to start rebuilding the city tomorrow."

"Hey, you have to help as well since you destroyed a part of it as well you know."

"We'll see what happens. Anyway, I've got stuff to do, see you later." As Brian walked towards the elevator he was interrupted by Noire who caught up with him.

"I forgot to mention something. We will be having some guests coming tomorrow, it's only just Neptune and company, even Histoire will be coming over."

"Alright then, thanks for the heads up. I'll be with Blanc if you need me." Brian entered the elevator and disappeared onto the upper levels of the Basilicom, leaving Noire alone with Kei, both had smiles stretched across their faces. Things would be interesting when the next day dawned.

* * *

The sun had disappeared over the horizon and gave way for the moon to make its appearance in the dark sky, the city of Lastation was in an all-time quiet state, a far cry to the days that have passed before the battle. Watching the city from above on a white stone balcony was Brian, his hands were in his pants' pockets while the wind gently blew his coat around, the moonlight was shining through the holes in his white, Lowean styled coat. As Brian continued to gaze at the city he felt something in the air, it was heavy and full of energy. He turned around to his left to see Bellona materialising out of thin air, the moonlight made her already ghostly appearance more abnormal. The former goddess looked at Brian and gave hi ma cheeky grin.

"How ya doing, kiddo?" she asked him.

"I've been better, but why call me kiddo?" responded Brian.

"You're younger than me, age wise anyway, so I can call you that if I want to." Bellona leaned up against the edge of the balcony and continued to gaze at Brian, her backed turned towards the city below them. "So, I guess you have a few questions that you want to ask me. I'll let you ask away but I have some questions as well, if you don't mind answering them."

Brian nodded. "Alright then. Well, for a start, why are you interested in watching over me? Wraith explained that you're interested in my relationship with Blanc so I'm just wondering is all."

Bellona smiled and sighed, her arms rested on the balcony and she clenched the rails. "You're an interesting person, I've been watching over you ever since you arrived in Lowee from Planeptune and I took a great interest in how my dear Blanc was falling for you."

"'Dear Blanc'? Oh right, I remember that you said that she was a daughter to you or something. Is Blanc your daughter?"

Bellona shook her head. "No, she isn't really my daughter. If I had lived longer till the moment she was born by the people's faith then she would have been my little sister, but I call her my daughter anyway."

Brian had taken his hands out of his pockets and his arms were now behind his back, the young man's full attention was on the CPU ghost. "Do you mind that I'm dating Blanc? Since you call yourself her daughter I though I'd have to ask this."

Bellona stared at Brian for a short moment before breaking out in a chuckle. "Of course I'm fine with it, in fact I got very excited when I saw the two of you make out a few days ago, it was a rather… touching moment. A pity you didn't go any further with that."

Brian's cheeks burned with a bright red colour as he blushed his gaze turned away from Bellona and back towards the city around them. "Y-Y-You saw that?"

The former CPU nodded enthusiastically. "Sure did, kiddo, sure did. Although, now I'm wonderign what would've happened if I had revealed myself to you earlier, maybe I could have stolen your heart instead."

As Brian became confused at what Bellona was mumbling about he was soon startled by the fact that the founder of Lowee had quickly pressed her body up against his, her right hand rubbed his left leg and her expression became seductive. "Blanc isn't here at the moment, so we've got some time to ourselves. Wanna have some fun?"

As Brian tried to protest as best he could an arm appeared out of nowhere and grabbed Bellona by the neck, the arm threw her off the young man and back to the railing of the balcony. When the Ancient looked back at the arm he saw another woman, this one was taller than Bellona and had long silver hair, green eyes, a black dress with black padded armour and boots, her armoured black gloves were on her hips and a disgusted expression adorned her face. The strange woman looked over at Bellona and sighed in annoyance.

"Just what the hell do you think you are doing, Bellona?" the woman chastised. "You could have frightened the young man to death with your perverted thoughts of 'fun'."

"Oh grow a pair already, Minerva," grumbled Bellona in response. "I was only teasing him."

Minerva sighed once more before turning her attention to Brian. "I apologise for Bellona's behaviour, she is a pervert after all."

"N-N-No problem," was all Brian could say, although he was secretly interested in seeing how far Bellona would have gone. "So you're Minerva, founder and former CPU of Lastation?"

The ghostly CPU nodded. "That is correct, glad to know that someone remembers my name around here. It is good to meet you in person, I have heard a lot about you."

"Likewise. So why are you here?"

"I am here to keep a close eye on Bellona since I knew that she was seeing you tonight, plus I wanted to see you. B-B-But it isn't because I was _that_ interested in meeting you or anything."

Brian face palmed and sighed. "Another tsundere? Well, you don't sound as bad as Noire when she goes full tsun so I can excuse it."

Minerva blushed and looked away while Bellona chuckled. "I-I know that I'm a damn tsundere, it isn't something that I can get rid off, but I'm trying my best," Minerva pouted as she crossed her arms.

"Don't worry about it," Brian reassuringly told her before looking at Bellona. "Was there anything else you wanted to talk to me about?"

Bellona's expression turned fro ma cheery look into a saddened one. "Um, there was one more thing. Do you remember anything about your past?"

This was a question that Brian was not expecting. "What do you mean by that?"

"Well, when we were merged we shared the same memories and had access to our past memories. I took the liberty of looking through your memories and found some distorted images, they didn't make much sense to me but it looked similar to those vision you told Blanny about back in Lowee. When I looked for any childhood memories I barely found any."

Brian shrugged his shoulders in response. "I don't really know either, plus I don't really care." Before he could say anything more a familiar voice could be heard coming from inside the Basilicom. Brian, Bellona and Minerva turned their attention to the voice and recognised who it belonged to: it was Blanc. Brian's face lit up with excitement as he heard her mumbles. "Sorry, Bellona and Minerva, we'll have to continue this another… eh? They already legged it?"

Brian had turned around to resume talking with the two former goddesses only to find that they had disappeared and no trace of them could be seen, it did acquire Blanc's attention however. "Huh? Is someone out there?" Blanc asked as she opened the glass door, the first thing she was was Brian standing on the balcony, his attention directed to her.

"B-B-Brian? Y-You're alive?" Blanc asked as her eyes widened and her hands trembled, she approached the young man and rubbed his left cheek, her expression filled with astonishment.

"Yep, I'm still alive, and I'm glad to see you up and about," replied Brian as he smiled at her.

A tear escaped from Blanc before she leapt at the young man and tackled him to the ground in a tight hug, the CPU of Lowee could no longer contain her tears and she wept, her tears staining his shirt. Brian smiled and patted Blanc on the head affectionately while his other arm wrapped itself around the petite person on top of him. She looked up at his face and tried to hold back the tears while speaking. "I… I thought I lost you, I thought you died out there, I was so worried when I woke up and couldn't see anyone around. I'm glad you're safe."

"Same here, Blanc, same here. Don't try and do that sort of heroic stuff again, please, I thought you died and I went on a rampage through Lastation because of that."

"I-I'm sorry. I didn't mean for you to worry about that, I just… I don't really know."

"Well, it doesn't matter, everything is going to be fine from now on." The young man smiled and gently kissed Blanc on the lips, the Lowean CPU leaned in and the kiss became more passionate as both of them wrapped their arms and hands around each other. The two of them stayed like that for a while in each others arms, watching the moon head west until it began to set over the horizon. It was a romantic moment for the two of them Brian thought as he leaned up against the wall with a sleeping Blanc resting her head against his chest, and he wouldn't have it any other way.

* * *

 **A/N: Finally got it done, took me a while but I did it. I've definitely come far from where I've started, 52 chapters (actually 51 since the prologue doesn't count) and I think I have done quite well. I decided to split this chapter into two halves which has made this a lot easier for me, if I had done it as one whole chapter then it would've taken me several more days plus another 6000 words, definitely better to be two chapters. The next dozen chapters are going to be a lot more peaceful so don't expect much action – unless you're including lemons in which case there will be action, just some different action. I'm getting pretty excited for what's to come with this story and the characters, relationships, heroes, anti-heroes and villains, not to mention the new arrival of the armoured man who can speak a different language. Have a good day readers and may your grades forever be high.**


	53. The Aftermath - Part 2

**Chapter 52: The Aftermath – Part 2**

 _A dark, grey mist surrounded the snowy field, an invisible wind blew through and sent snow flying across the area, yet the wind did not have an effect on the four figures standing in the field in front of a slab of stone. The taller of the four, a brown haired girl wearing a white and blue hat along with an oversized white coat with fur ruffing, knelt down and placed a flower at the base of the stone slab, whimpering sounds came from two others, these were small girls who looked similar to the coat wearing girl except their coats were a pink and blue colouring. The fourth figure was difficult to recognise, only because the fourth figure was either a very young boy or girl around Rom's and Ram's height with scruffy brown hair, an oversized brown trench coat with stitches all over, grey pants and white shoes. The two young girls were crying while hugging each other, the kid was still as a rock and never uttered a single sound as he or she stood next to the older girl. The older girl wrapped an arm around the kid and brought them close to her._

" _You alright?" the older girl asked the kid. "You're being quiet."_

" _Yeah, I just don't get it is all," replied the kid, the sound of the voice indicated that it was a young boy. "Who was he anyway? You barely talk about him."_

 _The older sighed sadly and patted the scruffy kid's head, her hand running through his brown hair. "He… he was greatest person that I ever knew, apart from my sisters and you of course. He was a warrior, a commander, a gamer, an avid reader yet also prone to bursts of anger, full of hate and a deeply troubled person. I loved him despite all of his flaws and he loved me too." She said no more afterwards._

 _The kid looked at her and sighed before glancing at the stone slab in front of them, the stone was covered in snow and frozen moss, its vines wrapping around the object. The older girl wiped away tears off her face and continued to stare at the stone slab, her eyes were fixated to a single point on the stone, her eyes were staring at a few lines of words that were carved deep into the stone. It read: 'In memory of Brian the Shadow Walker, the last Ancient. Loved by those that he held close to his heart, hated by his enemies and feared by the rest'._

" _Brian the Shadow Walker, eh?" the kid mumbled. "I wonder what he would have been like if I knew him."_

" _He would have thought highly of you, because… because…" the older girl tried to say, but her words got caught up in her throat and she never finished trying to speak, instead she gave up and pulled the young boy in a tight hug as tears flowed down her face. "I wish he was still here, I wish he was alive, I miss him." The snowy field began to disappear and the four figures blew away like sand in a strong wind, a white void took over the area and everything shattered like glass as a bright light appeared, then the sleeper's eyes opened and awoke._

* * *

The bright sunlight of Gamindustri woke the senior Lowean CPU up from her slumber, Blanc groaned and gazed around after rubbing her eyes, she quickly realised that her head was resting against the clothed chest of a certain Ancient who happened to be asleep, the rhythm of his chest moving up and down was slightly alluring and Blanc pondered whether to go back to sleep for a moment. As Blanc overcame the weary sleepiness she soon remembered the strange dream she had, it was sort of akin to a bad dream due to her, Rom, Ram and some random boy being sad about the death of Brian, she looked over at the sleeping Ancient and sighed with relief that what she dreamt of was indeed a dream. Yet there was one thing on her mind.

 _Who was that young boy that I kept close to me? I couldn't see his face so it's hard to say whether I know him or not. Still, there was something odd about him, something familiar, something that I cannot place… I'd ask Histoire about it but I don't want to trouble her when she already has enough to worry about. But why am I having more bad dreams lately? Is everyone having this problem?_

Blanc was stirred from her thoughts by something she noticed Brian was doing: his left hand was twitching. The Lowean CPU knew that whenever Brian began to twitch it meant that he was usually having a bad dream or he was being too nervous, in this case Blanc knew that he was having a bad dream. Blanc gently shook Brian around for a few minutes but failed to get a reaction out of him, with a determined expression the CPU of Lowee grabbed Brian firmly by the shoulders and violently shook his about, his head constantly hitting the wall repeatedly. This was enough to awake him with an exhausted and painful look across his face.

"What… what the hell?" Brian mumbled as he rubbed the back of his head, he looked down to see Blanc staring at him, her eyes full of concern. "Oh, hello there, Blanc. Did you wake me up?"

"Um, y-yeah, sorry about that," Blanc apologised. "Its just… well, you were twitching again. Did something happen?"

Brian sighed, his right arm still around Blanc's body while his left arm laid on the ground, his legs felt numb while the back of his head was emitting a lot of pain. "I guess you could say that, it's nothing important, really."

Blanc stared Brian down. "Just tell me already, I can tell when you're lying you know."

Brian sighed and his gaze drifted away. "Well, remember back in Planeptune after the sleepover and when Neptune punched me out?"

"Yes, I remember that. Why are you asking?"

"Do you remember when I woke up and you lot told me that I had been mumbling and writhing in my sleep, then I told you it was all because of my bad nerves?" Blanc nodded, knowing where the conversation was heading. "Well, I lied. It was because of a nightmare that involved everyone I knew dead around my feet in Planeptune while the Dark Lord was resurrected amidst the ruins of the Planeptune Basilicom."

"Why didn't you tell us that when we asked you about it?"

"Because it was my problem, and I had aimed to keep it to myself so no one would worry about it but then… well, you know what happened next."

Blanc nodded. "The Dark Captains attacked us in our nations." The Lowean CPU moved her right hand to Brian's chin and grabbed a gentle hold of it, she then forced his head to her left and her eyes met his. "Brian, y-you know that you don't have to burden yourself with all the troubles that are thrown at you, I-I'm here for you."

Brian held onto her hand and chuckled. "You're still not used to showing affection to anyone other than your sisters, and even that's rare."

Blanc growled in a way Brian thought was cute. "Shut up you damn idiot."

"But I'm your idiot now, aren't I?"

"Yeah, I guess you are, and I don't think I would have had it any other way."

Brian and Blanc stared at each other and smiled before breaking out into a chuckle, then their heads started to move together slowly, Brian had moved a hand behind Blanc's neck while she had moved both her arms around his neck. Just as their lips were about to press together the sounds of wooden planks being hammered and industrial equipment started up, Brian and Blanc sprang their heads back and broke out in a blush before the Lowean CPU grumbled at the noise.

"Bloody noise, it had to happen just as things were, er, getting interesting," Blanc mumbled.

"Oh well, it can't be helped," Brian said as he got up along with Blanc. "They are starting to clear away the rubble that was left over from yesterdays battle, that would mean that Noire, and possibly Uni and Kei, are down there as well. We better get back inside, I'm starving."

"Likewise," said Blanc as she giggled when Brian's stomach growled. "Let's go and find some breakfast, assuming Rom and Ram haven't eaten everything already."

Brian chuckled and walked to the glass door with Blanc behind him, one the young man opened the door – which was open ajar – and stepped in a bucket of hot water fell onto his head, the water ran down his body and his body began to burn. The Ancient hopped around and yelled out in pain while Blanc snarled viciously at Rom and Ram who happened to be hiding around the corner, Rom was hiding behind her twin sister while Ram was sniggering. "That's what he gets for not getting up early to play with us," Ram said in a victorious tone.

"You little brats… get back here!" Blanc yelled as she began to run after her little sisters, her anger overriding the pain senses in her body.

Brian threw the bucket off his head and his body began to twitch all over due to the boiling, steaming hot water that was dumped all over his, after seeing Blanc race after her sisters he noticed how she would slow down and start to limp before regaining her energy and resume the chase, yelling all the way. Brian was sure that Blanc's cursing could be heard from every corner in the Basilicom, it was like some sort of beacon in case anyone happened to be looking for her, and it seemed to work. As soon as Brian began to recover from the boiling water he heard the sounds of running footsteps coming towards him, he turned around and wiped away water from his face to see Neptune and Nepgear coming towards him, their faces beaming with gladness.

"Yo there partner!" Neptune greeted Brian as she ran up to him, she then noticed the water dripping off him onto the ground. "Whoa, what happened to you?"

"Rom and Ram played a prank on me, nothing much," replied Brian as water continued to drip off him onto the ground. "Why are you here anyway?"

"Histy suggested that we should so something here to raise our shares and regain the faith of the people, or something like that anyway, I didn't pay much attention to her." With that said and done the purple goddess stuck her thumb up and beamed a big smile at Brian before getting close to him. "But who cares about that, I'm more interested in the news about you and Blanc. I heard that you and her are in some sort of relationship, is that true?"

Brian blinked a few times and glanced away from the two Nep sisters, his cheeks blushing a light shade of red. "Y-Yeah, that is true, we're dating."

"Congrats to ya and all," Neptune said as she gave Brian a pat on the back with a bright smile on her face, Nepgear nodded to affirm that she also congratulated Brian's relationship.

The young man could not help but notice that there was something odd about Neptune at that specific moment, her smile was cheery yet also tense as her teeth clenched together, her eyes were filled with a hint of sadness, overall Neptune was happy yet sort of depressed. "You alright, Neptune?" Brian asked. "You seem a bit tense."

"Hmm? No, I'm fine, no need to worry about little ol' me. Now then, I'm hungry so where's the pudding?"

"In the kitchen, I presume you know where that is."

"Cool, I'll try and save ya a pudding or two if you're lucky." Neptune then raced off down the hallway and disappeared from view.

Once Neptune was out of sight Brian turned around and looked at Nepgear. "Hey, did you notice anything weird with Neptune just now?" he asked her.

Nepgear looked quizzically at the Ancient, her head tilted sideways and a confused expression was on her face. "Was there something wrong with Neptune?"

"Yeah, she was happy yet also sad. What could that mean?"

"Hmm, actually, now that I think about, Neptune did seem a bit off from her usual self. I don't know why though."

Brian shrugged his shoulders. "It's probably something we shouldn't get involved with, just to be safe. Anyway, where are the others? I'd expected Plutia and Angel to be with you around here."

"Angel and Plutia are in the lounge room with Peashy last I saw, then IF, Compa and Victor were in Noire's office with Kei and Histoire but I think they left the Oracles to their own devices by now, Vert is still in Leanbox but is coming later this morning, of course Noire and Uni are outside helping people clean up and set up a wooden platform while also creating stands for food, water and what not."

"Peashy? What's she doing here? I thought she was in the Ultradimension with the alternative versions of the CPUs? Plus, where's Wraith? And Histoire is here too?"

Nepgear chuckled for a short moment as her arms went behind her back, a smile remained on her perky face. "Peashy decided to come and visit us, if it hadn't been for her then we would have had some more serious injuries when fighting in the Zune District. I haven't seen Wraith I'm afraid, although Histoire is here because there is going to be an event held later today, you should talk to her soon to get the details."

Brian nodded, his brain processing the information that was handed to him. "Alright then, thanks for that, Nepgear. Oh, one last question, what's the time?"

"It's past eleven in the morning. Is something wrong?"

The young man shook his head. "No, its just me and Blanc woke up not too long ago, that's all. Anyway, I better get something to eat after I find Blanc and make sure that she hasn't broken anything, both nearby objects and her bones – she's still not in good condition due to her injuries. Come on, let's go find her and the prankster twins."

Brian and Nepgear roamed down the hallway at a leisurely pace side-by-side, neither one breaking into a faster or slower pace than the other. As they walked in the direction Rom, Ram and Blanc had taken Nepgear glanced at Brian through the corner of her eyes and noticed that he looked a bit more tired than she previously presumed, he also appeared to be more stressed than usual, the corners of his lips were tight and his eyes were droopy – a key clue to his worn out state. The purple haired Candidate knew that events over the last few weeks, and even months, were wearing him out completely, and it was showing. Brian glanced over at Nepgear and raised an eyebrow at her.

"What is it, Nepgear? Something on my face?" Brian asked her.

"What? Oh, n-nothing, nothing at all, Brian," Nepgear replied quickly as she looked away, causing Brian to mumble something in an incoherent voice. The Candidate sighed and continued to walk alongside the young man, but this time there was no talking, only silence from the two of them. That was the case until the sounds of people running could be heard coming from nearby around the corner.

Rom and Ram ran around the corner at full speed, Ram was holding two cups of pudding in both her hands and a huge grin was on her face, Rom on the other hand was running closely behind and no grin was seen on her face, instead a small smile was in its place. Running behind them with the fury of a wild boar that had been wounded by hunters in a corner was Blanc, her facial expression said it all – her glaring red eye burned through the souls of Brian and Nepgear. Much to the surprise of both Brian and Nepgear they saw Neptune running behind Blanc, she was wailing for the Lowee twins to give back her pudding.

"Get back here you damn bitches!" Blanc yelled at the top of her voice, her pace getting faster.

"Give me back my puddings!" Neptune demanded.

"Ha ha ha ha! Catch us first!" responded Ram as her speed increased, she and Rom passed Brian and Nepgear, both sighed and shook their heads.

"Screw you! I'll… gah!" Blanc uttered in pain, she stumbled forward and leaned against the wall before panting deeply, she held an arm around her waist and tried to continue running after her little sisters. It did not bode well for the Lowean CPU. Due to the pain running through her body she stumbled forward and fell to the ground, as the brunette CPU was mere millimetres away from the ground Brian caught her as quick as he could.

"You alright, Blanc?" Brian asked, his voice filled with concern.

"I-I'm fine, don't worry about me," Blanc replied as she was help up to her feet, the Lowean CPU winced in pain as she got back onto her feet before leaning on the young man for support. "Okay then, maybe not. I still hurt from those wounds."

Brian sighed and wrapped an arm around her waist while she wrapped her left arm around the young man's left shoulder. "You shouldn't be running around, it won't help you in recovering from your wounds. Come on, I better take you back to your room so you can rest for a bit longer." With that Brian swung his right arm underneath Blanc's legs and lifted the small CPU into the air, her head rested against his chest were his heart was located, a deep shade of red was on her cheeks.

"H-Hey! Give me some warning before you go and do that!" Blanc stuttered, despite that the CPU of Lowee huddled against Brian's chest, her hearing picked up the rhythm of Brian's heartbeat and she realised that it was racing, her thoughts were confirmed when Blanc saw the reddened face of the young man. They both stared at each other in utter silence before Blanc spotted her little sisters poking their heads around the corner, both had worried and guilty expressions.

"Um, a-are you alright, Blanc?" Rom asked as she nervously approached her older sister.

"I'll be fine, Rom, but you, Ram and I will be having some words later today."

Rom backed away as Blanc glared at her, growling noises emitted from the senior Lowean CPU's mouth as she then turned her gaze towards Ram, who was still holding Neptune's puddings, although it turned out that it was merely the cups that the Candidate was holding as she and Rom had eaten the sweet snacks, much to the purple goddess's dismay. As Neptune shed a tear over the loss of her food Blanc looked up at Brian to see him glancing at Neptune, who then noticed his gaze and smiled at him. The Lowean CPU noticed how chirpy yet sad Neptune appeared to be, and Blanc was sure that it wasn't because of the pudding. Soon enough Brian started to walk towards the direction of Blanc's room, the Lowean CPU clutching gently onto his shirt all the way with a tired look on her face. For several minutes they roamed down the hallways until they arrived in Blanc's dimly lit room, the sheets had been moved aside while her hat and shoes here sprawled across the ground.

Brian walked up to Blanc's bed and gently placed the CPU underneath the bedsheets, she clasped her hands on the sheets and yawned loudly much to her embarrassment. The Ancient chuckled and patted Blanc on the head as he sat down on the bed next to her, causing the CPU to pout at him. "Why do you have to be such an ass?" Blanc asked, her tired expression growing across her face.

"Hey, you confessed to me first so I wouldn't be complaining if I were you," Brian retorted cheekily.

Blanc smiled at him before yawning again. "Yeah, so I did, and I still don't regret it." As the memory of that night came flooding through her brain the Lowean CPU blushed madly as she remembered the intense make out session that occurred during the confession, it was not something she had expected would happen but it did highlight what could happen if they both let their anger and passions get the better of them.

"Anyway, I have some catching up to do, I'll be back as soon as I've chatted with Histoire, there's something I want to ask her about."

"You mean about us?"

Brian nodded. "I want to know if it is even allowed for a human and a CPU to be in a relationship together, I hope there' good news to that. Well, have a good sleep and I'll see you soon."

Before Brian could get up Blanc, with all the strength she could muster, leaned upward and swiftly wrapped her arms around Brian, she then brought his head towards her and locked lips with him. After a few seconds their lips parted and Brian saw the smile on Blanc's embarrassed face. "See you soon," Blanc said to him.

"Not if I see you first," came the cheeky reply, as soon as Blanc closed her eyes and swiftly drifted to sleep with a smile on her face Brian stood up and walked out of the room, he silently closed the behind him and walked down the hallway towards Noire's office.

* * *

"Are you sure that we can pull it of?" Kei asked Histoire, the tomboy-looking woman stood next to Noire's desk and had one hand on the table while the other was over her left hip.

"I can see no other option, it will have to do for now, I have confidence that it will succeed," the tome fairy replied, her expression austere.

I hope you are right and this event restores the people's faith in the Goddesses, they sure could use it right about now."

Histoire nodded in agreement just as Brian entered the large office with the Lowee Candidates attached to his arms and Nepgear walking beside him, the two Oracles turned to look around and small smiles broke out across their faces, Histoire was especially happy to see the young man again after such a long time away from Planeptune. The keeper of Gamindustri's history floated over to the Ancient and beamed a bright smile at him.

"Hello there, Brian, it has been a while since we last met face-to-face," Historie greeted him. "I hope you are feeling better after yesterdays ordeal."

Brian nodded. "Good to see you again, Historie, and yeah, I'm feeling better. Blanc is also getting better but still needs to rest for a while."

"That is good to hear, I heard about what happened when we were able to re-establish a signal with Lastation city, then we heard about the catastrophe that occurred. I guess we are lucky that there were no large numbers of casualties."

"How bad is it?"

"Not as bad as some of the reports make it out to be," Kei replied. "Several dozen dead on both sides, many more wounded and a quarter of the city destroyed. The dead have already had a ceremony early this morning and much of the rubble has been cleared away."

"Well that's good and all but what's this about an event taking place sometime today? I heard about it from Nepgear when I bumped into her."

Histoire smiled and rubbed her hands together. "Ah yes, the event. What we have planned for today during the afternoon will hopefully restore at least some of the people's faith in the Goddesses. You see, I've been doing a bit of research prior to this and I have discovered that there are four reasons why faith towards the CPUs is in decline. First reason is because of their association with you I'm afraid, second reason is because of the dissatisfaction with the signing of the Friendship Treaty, even though Neptune abolished it, the third reason is because of their lax attitude of late which ties in the fourth reason: propaganda. This is why there are many Dark Followers who fight with the Dark Captains. This event will act as a counter-attack to these reason, the CPUs and the Candidates are to hold a festival later today and mingle with the people and hopefully help them out whenever needed."

"We'll just see how that goes." Brian wondered if it would be enough to help the people regain their trust in their rulers, personally he thought it would not do much, but it was a step forward to tackle the problem.

"I think it'll work," said Nepgear.

Rom and Ram nodded their heads in agreement. "Yeah, we'll be awesome out there!" Ram told everyone in the office.

"Uh huh, everything will work out fine," Rom added.

"That remains to be seen," Kei said, her arms crossed in front of her chest.

"Well, I better be off, I gotta find soemthing to eat," Brian informed the Oracles, just as he was about to leave he looked back and a grim expression appeared on his face. "By the way, have you two had any nightmares or any sort of bad dreams lately?"

"How did you know?" Histoire asked, she appeared surprised that the young man knew about it.

"Because I had one last night, or early this morning anyway. From the looks on people's faces this morning I'm guessing that most had some sort of bad dream. Why is that?"

Histoire sighed. "Honestly, I'm not quite sure, but it always happens around this time of year, every single year around this specific period just about everyone in Gamindustri has nightmares on all sorts of scale. I have been doing some research into it but hardly any information has arisen to give me answers."

"Wraith might know something, he's been all across the dimensions and he was an Oracle before all of this so he might have some answers."

The tome fairy nodded. "Good point, I will try to locate him as soon as possible then."

"Alright then. Oh, one last thing. Is it morally alright for a human to be in a relationship with a CPU?"

Histoire raised an eyebrow before chuckling. "Oh dear, have you and Blanc confessed to each other already?"

Brian nodded. "Just a few days ago actually. I'm just wondering if it's alright for me to date her is all."

"Of course it is alright, in fact there are records that date back to a many centuries ago when a CPU was in a relationship with one of her citizens. At any rate you two will be fine, and I give you my blessings. Now then, you better have something to eat, it is going to be a big day ahead."

* * *

The day was bright in the afternoon, the clouds had all but disappeared and yet the air was cool. On the main street that led from the Basilicom to the east of the city dozens upon dozens of wooden stores piled together side-by-side, there were many items for sale at low prices at each of these stores, there was even a small open bar filled with alcohol and fizzy drinks. Hundreds of people roamed the street in a jubilant and cheerful mood, and for a good reason too: the CPUs were going to spend the day with them for the victory festival. As the hours passed away a commotion occurred at the centre stage that was located closest to the Lastation Basilicom, as the people gathered around a few noises came out of the speakers that were placed all around the place and finally the main attraction appeared. The Goddesses of Gamindustri had arrived, and in their HDD forms no less.

As the Goddesses arrived on the stage everyone in the crowd paid every attention to their rulers, especially a certain Lastation-born citizen by the name of Hiroshi Fujita. Nearly all of his attention was placed on a certain tsundere who had flown onto the large, wooden stage. As Black Heart gazed upon the crowd before her and her fellow CPUs her eyes came into contact with those of Hiroshi's, the two stared at each other for a short moment before Black Heart broke into a small smile and discretely waved her hand at him, even if she was a tsundere she could still be caring the young man reasoned. Although that was not the only thing Hiroshi had noticed about her.

"Whoa, she's beautiful," Hiroshi muttered to himself, a small blush appearing on his cheeks.

"Well, I can certainly give her credit for that at least, if nothing else," a voice coming from behind said in response.

Hiroshi turned around and saw a peculiar man walking towards him, the strange man stopped next to the Lastation citizen and looked at him. "Who are you?" Hiroshi asked.

"The name is Victor, some call me the Wind Mage of Gamindustri. I am an acquaintance of the CPUs, although the Planeptune girls would claim that I am their friend, but I barely know much about the other Goddesses. What's your name?" Victor responded.

"I'm Hiroshi Fujita of Lastation. Are you here for the festival as well?"

Victor nodded. "Correct, I came here during the morning at around eight with the Planeptune Goddesses and a few friends, there's three of them over there." The top hat wearing man then pointed to the left at a small group of four people huddled around a pole, the smaller one was sitting around the young man's neck. "That one is Compa, then there is Angel, the one around his neck is Peashy and finally the sleepy looking one is Plutia. Angel, Plutia and Peashy are CPUs as well, in fact Plutia rules an alternative version of Planeptune. She's a bit… er, weird so don't get her angry as well as Angel, got it?"

Hiroshi nodded, he could sense the sadistic vibes coming from Angel and Plutia even fro ma long distance away. Then a thought occurred to him. "Hold on, isn't Angel a friend of the Shadow Walker?" Hiroshi asked the slightly taller man.

Victor looked at him and nodded. "He is, although his real name is Brian so if you meet him, which is highly, just call him that."

"Alright then, but what do you mean by all that?"

"Just look up at the stage, you'll see in a few seconds."

Hiroshi looked up at the stage and glanced at the CPUs standing there, in the front row were the senior Goddesses of Gamindustri, from left to right – in Hiroshi's prospective – were Green Heart, Purple Heart, Black Heart and finally White Heart, all four were wearing dresses that matched the colour of their names. Behind them were the CPU Candidates in dresses as well, they stood just behind their older sisters and they too had serious expression – except for Rom and Ram. It was then, to everyone's shock and amazement, that the last person they had expected to show up walked onto the stage and stood alongside White Heart – Brian. The Ancient had a serious expression plastered across his face, his hands were by his sides and everyone could see the bright, blue glowing right hand of his. Unlike the Goddesses Brian was wearing his usual attire, even the now battle damaged white, Lowean styled trench coat – which some on the crowd thought was pretty cool.

As soon as everyone was quiet the four senior CPUs cleared their throats and readied themselves. Black Heart was the first to speak. "People of Gamindustri, we thank you all for attending this festival. For all those who come abroad we all know that you have travelled far to see this and commemorate the ending of a crisis that had engulfed our land ever since the comets were first sighted."

It was Purple Heart's turn to speak. "Despite all the praise that has been given to them, the Dark Captains have shown their true colours by attacking the people and ravaging the lands on which you all live on. They have stolen, burned, murdered and sought to destroy all that is great about our world."

Now Green Heart spoke. "With the devastation that has been wrought upon the Leanbox Basilicom and the city of Lastation as well as the casualties that have followed we have found it necessary to restore the trust between human and CPU, today we hope that we can be counted on again."

White Heart was next. "In order for this to happen we swear to find the last remaining Dark Captains and Followers, we will find them and bring them to justice. We will remember those who fell in the defence of their homes."

Brian said nothing after White Heart finished, instead he merely nodded in agreement with what the CPUs had just said, for most people that was good enough. Then all the eight CPUs on stage, along with Brian, bellowed as one voice. "Hail the victorious dead!"

"Hail!" the crowd bellowed in return, and thus the festivities truly began.

"Well then, things have gone off without any trouble, that's good," Victor said as he turned towards Hiroshi. "I have to catch up with a friend of mine, she's been looking over the security of the festival all day so far, I think she needs a bit of company, plus I think her shift is over. Have a good time, Hiroshi."

"Yeah, same to you too, Victor," Hiroshi responded as the man began to walk away through the dense crowd, the Lastation citizen soon lost sight of Victor in a matter o9f seconds due to the crowd. "Well then, I think I'll go over and say hello to Noire, looks like she and the others have left the stage."

Hiroshi walked through the crowd and made his way towards Black Heart and Black Sister, both were surrounded by people at a store filled with figurines of anime characters. Once Hiroshi managed to get close to them Black Heart glanced around and noticed him, a small smile was on her face when their eyes met contact. "Hiroshi, good to see you.

Are you enjoying yourself so far?" Black Heart asked.

The young man shrugged. "I don't know, the festival only just begun you know."

"Well, I suppose that's a reasonable answer, but you better enjoy it."

"Don't worry, Noire, I will."

It was then that Black Sister noticed the young man. "Hmm? Hey, Noire, who is this?"

"Oh, Uni, this is Hiroshi Fujita, we met yesterday during the battle."

"Yep, I was the one who helped your sister get back to the Basilicom in one piece, she was about to get finished off by some creepy guy when I came in and saved her, then I patched her sprained ankle up."

Black Sister looked astonished yet also suspicious, she turned her gaze towards Black Heart and saw her starting to heat up with nervousness. "Is that so? Noire here said that she was the one who saved someone, not the other way round, then Kei was the one who patched you up. Isn't that right?"

Black Heart tugged at the collar of her almost revealing black dress and stuttered. "Wh-Wh-What? Um, y-yeah, that's right. Stop lying already, Hiroshi!"

"What? I'm not lying, Noire!"

Before Black Heart could retort a hand grasped her left shoulder, the three of them saw Kei with a glass cup filled with alcohol and a grin on her face. "Noire, you shouldn't lie to the young man and your sister, it sets a bad image of you."

The tsundere CPU was humbled into submission thanks to Kei who had now turned her attention to Hiroshi. "Hello there, Hiroshi, good to see you again after yesterdays events."

"Same to you, Lady Kei," Hiroshi responded with politeness.

"No need to be that formal with me, just call me Kei, that's good enough for me. Say, are you and Noire friends yet? She is a rather lonely person so I was just wondering."

Hiroshi shrugged in response while Black Heart blushed madly while getting angry. "Wh-Wh-Wh-What?! I have friends thank you very much!"

Kei laughed and patted Black Heart's shoulder while the Candidate giggled. "I know that, but it always gets a reaction out of you," Kei said, as she began to walk off she stopped next to Hiroshi and smiled at him. "You're a lucky person if you do manage to become friends with Noire, she's a good person but has trouble trying to show it. Good luck."

As Kei walked away and disappeared from view Hiroshi looked at Black Heart and noticed that she had an embarrassed expression on her face, she looked away and twiddled her fingers around. "Um, hey, Hiroshi, w-w-would you like to, er… w-would you like to c-c-come over t-t-tonight? W-We're having a party in the Basilicom so I thought-"

"I'd like to go, sure thing," Hiroshi interrupted the CPU's stuttering rambling.

"R-R-Really? Are you sure?"

"Of course, how could I say no?"

"But what about your parents?"

Hiroshi became quiet after that, his expression grim and distant. "It'll be fine, trust me."

The look on Hiroshi's face did not escape the notice of the tsundere sisters, but for the young man's sake they decided to leave it be and focus on the invitation, which Black Heart was rather happy about. "Great, that's great! I'll see you at the Basilicom at around seven tonight. See you then."

As this went on Brian was on his own in another part of the festival grounds, his back was leaning on a wall while his arms were crossed in front of him, his head was low and one leg was crossed over another. Everyone was avoiding the Ancient completely while he too avoided them, it was not the best impression he could give after how the CPUs made their speech with him alongside them. The young man gazed at the crowd nervously and his fingers began to twitch, he started to look around and spotted an open path back towards the Basilicom, with swift legs Brian walked towards the direction of the tall building and abandoned the festival now behind him. Brian failed to see a pair of red eyes belonging to a certain CPU watching him.

When Brian entered the Basilicom and arrived on one of the balconies he looked down at the festival below and sighed. "I hate these sorts of social events," Brian muttered to himself. "It always makes me feel awkward."

"I know what you mean," mumbled a voice coming from behind Brian, the young man turned around to see Wraith standing with his back straight and his arms at his sides. "Greetings. Just as I promised yesterday I have come to talk to you."

"About time, I was wondering when you would show up."

"Alright then, ask away, I'm sure you have a few questions that you want to be answered."

Brian nodded and turned around, his full attention was directed towards Wraith. "Tell me about the Royal Bloodline, what is it?"

"The Royal Bloodline was made up of powerful Ancients who ruled the rest of their species with an iron fist, it is also known as the Cursed Bloodline due to the highly common bouts of madness, anger tantrums, bloodthirsty ambitions and overall evilness. Surprisingly they managed to hang onto power for two thousand years before everything fell apart, before The Sundering of the Ancients."

"What happened then?"

"After two thousand years the Royal Bloodline became so corrupted by power, by madness, by hatred that the rest of the Ancients decided to get rod of them and their supporters. The last straw was when an earthquake shook them to their very core, cities and towns were destroyed, a whole coastline fell underneath the sea and thousands upon thousands were dead. Civil war broke out and for many years the Ancients slaughtered each other, until the Old World sank beneath the sea, causing the few thousand survivors to make the journey east across the Sundering Sea to the shores of the New World – Gamindustri. Ironically the New World of Gamindustri was also responsible for the earthquake when the continent rose from beneath the sea."

The story mesmerised the young man, the tale about the fall of the Ancients was an enthralling one to him, although it did leave a few questions. "So what happened to the Royal Bloodline? Who founded it and who was the last member?"

"The founder of the Royal Bloodline was a young man by the name of Bleddyn, he was a farmer during the waning years of the Elder Era who rose to power and united the Old World under his rule, he was Emperor of the Ancients. Bleddyn also called himself the first Ancient, just as the Prophecy says that you are the last. As for the last member of the Royal Bloodline, well, I'm talking to him right now."

"Wait, you mean me?!" Brian was at a loss for words.

"Who else would I be talking to? Of course you. Doesn't it all make sense now? Have you ever wondered why you hate people so much? Why you always want to see the world burn? Why you always loose your cool in battle and give into bloodthirsty rages? It's because it is in your blood, it is in your nature to hate everything and everyone."

"Blanc can change that," Brian muttered. "She has always helped me whenever I need it, even if I destroy or kill she is always there for me, I love her for that. Just because it is a part of my bloodline that doesn't mean I have to be controlled by that fact."

"That may be so, but you shouldn't ignore it either, to be ignorant of it and to ignore it will lead you down a path which you will learn to hate. Trust me, I know of it first-hand. If you're wondering why I know all about this it is because I was worshipped by the Ancients as the God of Time so I know a few things. Anyway, I better be off, you better keep an eye on that nosey CPU of yours."

Brian turned around and looked at the open glass door, peeking through the doorway was White Heart. The Ancient sighed and smiled at her before looking back at Wraith, only to discover that the God of Time had disappeared. "Why does he keep doing that? He's like Batman with those disappearing acts."

White Heart walked up to Brian and stood next to him, she noticed how the young man's face tensed up and he glanced away as if he was guilty of something. "Um, sorry for eavesdropping, Brian, I saw you leave the festival so I wondered what was going on with you, then I heard the conversation between you and Wraith about the Royal Bloodline and The Sundering."

Brian glanced at the ground and began to twitch nervously. "What Wraith said about my ancestry, about hatred, bloodlust and corruption being a part of my natural psyche, does that change anything between us?"

The Lowean CPU look sternly at Brian for a moment before breaking out into a laugh. "No, it changes nothing you idiot, nothing at all. It just makes me want to help you more."

"Really? Damn I love you."

"I love you too." As White Heart gave Brian a hug she asked him a question. "Hey, us CPUs are going back to our nations tomorrow and I was wondering… would you like to come back and live in Lowee permanently with me, Rom, Ram and Mina? I can get you a job in the Basilicom, or even the Guild if you want."

Brian smiled and patted the blue haired woman gently. "You've got yourself a deal, I'd love to live and work with you."

White Heart tightened her hug and beamed a bright smile at the Ancient. "That's awesome! Come on, let's read a book to pass the time, I'm not one for festivals either. Plus we're having a party tonight and I heard that Noire invited someone."

Brian raised an eyebrow and chuckled. "Seriously? Noire invited someone? That's new, I have to see this tonight."

The CPU laughed as she nodded her head. "Yeah, that makes two of us. Come on, let's read a book, I have one of my novels with me this time."

* * *

Night had begun to fall across Gamindustri and with that the festival had ended in an utterly joyous mood, faith towards the CPUs had risen highly and it felt as if nothing had changed from when the Dark Captains had first arrived. As the noises in the city quietened down the matter was different inside the Basilicom, completely different. A game was about to be played and all manner of words were about to be uttered. In the gaming room of the Basilicom were Brian, Angel, Victor and Hiroshi, all four of them were sitting on the couches with the latest console Lowee had devised and sold – despite the price it was going pretty well so Blanc was pleased about that, apart from the festival the new console had helped increase her shares even further. The four men were playing a game that had yet to be released on the new console, but what they had was a prototype that Blanc asked them to review by playing it. Little did she or the others know how dangerous it would become.

The game was called 'Plumber Cart 8', and right from the very start things were pretty good. Angel mastered the controls fairly swiftly while Victor grumbled about how difficult it was for him to do anything, Brian and Hiroshi had nothing to say. Then came the character menu. Brian chose a fat man in bright yellow clothing who had terrible facial hair, Angel chose a red baby plumber, Victor chose a young male mushroom man and Hiroshi chose a little green dinosaur wit ha shell on its back. For vehicles Brian chose some sort of bike as did Victor, Angel chose a fancy high-speed car while Hiroshi chose a drifting specific car. Then the race began.

The race course was a farming meadow filled with cows and grass mounds, Angel got the head start due to his car's speed as well as a mushroom from the first box he got, Hiroshi was in second until he drove into a cow which let Brian and Victor come in second and third. Hiroshi grumbled as he entered fourth behind Victor, that was until he got a blue shell in a mystery box and threw it, landing on Angel and Brian who were fighting for first place.

"The hell was that?!" Brian yelled.

"Fuck me life!" grumbled Angel.

It was only an image of what was to follow soon afterwards when the next race began after their time in the meadows was over, with Victor coming in first – much to everyone's surprise. The next was a highway filled with cars and trucks, despite being in first Victor did not hold the title for very long due to a red shell and a car, he snarled viciously before coming in fourth place. Hiroshi was in first and grinned as he threw a green shell behind him at Brian, hitting its mark and causing the Ancient to stamp his feet in rage. "Screw you, Hiroshi!" Brian snarled at the blue eyed Lastation citizen.

"Hey, just playing the- ah! The fricking hell?!" Hiroshi yelled, his anger building deep within him.

Some time later Victor was hit by two red shells, a small brown creature and finally a banana peel, with the rage within him exploding he yelled and smashed the small table next to him. "Can you not?! WHY CAN'T WE ALL JUST GET ALONG YOU FUCKTARDS?!"

After that for the next half hour it became a full blown war between the four men, each threw shell after shell and banana peel after banana peel at each other while yelling, shouting and cursing one another. Brian had activated his Share Energy, Angel had transformed into Wolf Heart, Victor was just yelling while Hiroshi was doing his best to avoid the dark blue mark on his chest from activating, yet he remained pretty pissed off. As this went on Blanc, Plutia, Noire and IF were watching the four of them argue almost violently with each other. The tsundere turned and looked at her smaller, book loving counterpart.

"Maybe you should put 'may cause violent rages and use of bad language' in the small print," Noire suggested to Blanc.

"Er, maybe," was all the small goddess could respond with.

* * *

The Void, that was the name for all space between the dimensions. It was said that no one could live in it, no one could survive in it, no life could be supported. However, something, or someone, did survive in the endless Void, someone was living in it, someone was surviving it. The only way for one to survive the endless vacuum of the Void was to be one with it, or just be a spirit, and thus Agandur the Dark Lord had managed to survive ever since he was defeated by the combined efforts of Wraith and Uriel. The Dark Lord floated in the empty nothingness that was the Void, his thoughts had drifted towards his past failures as well as his predicament, that was until the spirit felt something, something off.

 _What is this? It feels as if some of my energy is returning. Can it be? Has one of my Captains fallen to the blade of another? Actually, make that two Captains, more energy than I thought is returning. Could it be Wraith's doing? Possibly, yet he would have had allies with him. Curse that man!_

There was also something odd going on, it felt as if the links between the dimensions were weakening, Agandur had been sensing that for a few days already but not on this scale, it felt as if the fabric of reality was being torn asunder. The spirit of the Dark Lord looked around the darkness of the Void yet nothing appeared out of the ordinary – if one was to call being in the Void ordinary anyway. Then he sensed something else: energy, powerful energy, an energy that could tear dimensions apart. Agandur could sense it gathering in one point in some faraway dimension, then came a connection to another, a dimension which the Dark Lord knew well and hated: the dimension where he had been defeated.

 _So the legends are true, the Legion is preparing for war once again, and it feels as if they are preparing to finish off the work that I started. Uriel, the Ice Emperor of the Imperials, if only you knew what was coming. Heh heh heh…_

* * *

 **A/B: Got this finished ahead of time, so that's good. Like the Mario and Nintendo Switch references I made with this chapter? I was planning on doing that for some time already. What could Blanc's dream mean? Who can say.**

 **I wasn't actually going to put in the scene with the Dark Lord in this chapter but I thought it would be good for what I had planned for next time, and as for the next chapter there will be quite some action involving fighting, killing and magic. Yes, I know, I did say that the next dozen or so chapters were to be peaceful but I decided against it, don't worry it will be peaceful after that. If you have any suggestions please tell me and as always have a good day readers.**


	54. Dimensional Links

**Chapter 53: Dimensional Links**

All seemed calm in the eastern outskirts of the city of Planeptune, yet if anyone was there they would have said that it was too suspicious. No sounds could be heard for miles upon miles in the bright, green landscape, no birds or humans or even monsters could be detected. The darkness of the early morning covered all. Yet despite this odd and deathly atmosphere there was one lonely figure standing atop a small grassy knoll, his hood obscuring most of his face and his cloak hung down his back, his chainmail and steel plated armour was dim in the darkness. The solitary man raised his armoured left hand near his chest and dark blue energy began to flow from the palm, it spiralled around for several seconds before turning into a small window through time and space. The dark blue window fizzled for a moment before a face appeared, it was that of a woman with dark blue hair, fair skin and dark purple eyes.

"About time you gave me a report," the woman said, her voice dripping with annoyance. "Where have you been?"

"I thought you knew. The Heart Dimension sees all, does it not, Kurome?" the armoured man retorted with a smug expression.

"Enough of this cheeky banter. What are you doing? Are you aware that the Legion is preparing for war and they need you for leadership?"

"I am well aware, I gave the order myself. It is that time of year again, when nightmares plague the dreams of people throughout every single dimension and when the links between these dimensions are weak. It is then that the Legion musters together, to make war on another world, on another dimension, and feast upon the very elements until nothing is left."

"Regardless, what are you doing? You should be preparing for invasion."

The armoured man grinned malevolently, his eyes glowing dark blue. "I want to try something, an experiment. I want to see how long a CPU from another dimension can last without her country, and vice versa with said country. I'm going to close the dimensional portal that links this dimension to its counterpart."

Kurome sighed and shook her head, she knew all too well about the man's lust for chaos. "Seriously? You're going to march in there looking like that?"

"Hmm, good point." The armoured man then began to glow dark blue on several parts of his armour, a steel helmet with three pointed edges – two poking downwards from his cheeks and the third poking upwards – and a skull as a faceplate appeared around his head, bone plate rivets materialised across his armoured body as well as two, sharp bone fragments coming out of the armoured gauntlets over his knuckles on each hand. He grinned and chuckled as he looked back at the image of Kurome. "I'll be making a scene while looking like this. Don't worry, I'll try to leave as many people alive as I possibly can, if they don't cross paths with me that is."

Once again Kurome shook her head and face palmed. "Why did I ever agree to us being allies?"

"Because you need me, that Agandur person is a complete failure and I intend to prove it someday. He's no Dark Lord, he is just a failure of a human, a Lesser Ancient at that, an utter waste of space!"

The Dark CPU glared viciously at the almost psychotic man, her teeth were showing as a snarl escaped her throat. "Shut your mouth. Agandur may have failed me when I sent him to travel the dimensions to find that Ancient survivor but he is the only person I had who I considered family, you should know better. After all, what would your race say about you if they saw you now."

The man sighed deeply and glared back at Kurome. "Does it matter? They are all dead."

"No, you are not alone."

The man raised an eyebrow before chuckling. "Sure, whatever, just let me conduct my experiment first before I lead the invasion to finish off what your boyfriend started and failed to complete."

Kurome blushed madly and began to stutter, she had quickly lost her composure and became a stammering wreck. "Wh-Wh-Wh-What?! I-I-It's nothing like that!"

"Says you. Anyway, I've got a portal to dismantle, I guess I'll be hearing from you later after I finish off what Agandur failed to do. Remember, once that is over and dusted I want my sword back, you sworethat you would give it me and I aim to make you keep that oath." With that the heavily armoured man closed the link and the energy re-entered his body, but his eyes remained a flaring dark blue. With a wicked grin he marched forward discretely into Planeptune city, avoiding the eyes of anyone who happened to be out and about by travelling via rooftop, despite the weight of the steel, chainmail and bone armour he appeared to be very flexible as he climbed atop an electrical post before running on the wires like a ninja.

Jumping from wire to wire, roof to roof and pole to pole, the man made his way to the Planeptune Basilicom as stealthy as possible. No one saw him, but if anyone were to see the strange man then they would be killed by him. Even as he wandered pass and over the various buildings and homes of the people all plant life would whither away into nothing. Finally, after a while of evading the eyes of others, the man had arrived outside the Basilicom. "Heh, I doubt they would just let me in on a whim, therefore I better do it myself," the man mumbled to himself as he walked up to the doors.

The armoured man placed his left hand over the closed door and a mist of dark blue energy flowed out of the palm, the door was covered in the peculiar energy as the man channelled his destructive power through the obstacle; it never occurred to him to just open the door though. The door began to crack apart until it burst forth into the Basilicom, it was sent flying down the hallway and crashed into the wall. A few guards were nearby and rushed over to the scene only to see the armoured man stroll in as if he owned the place, those guards who had survived the encounter with Lothar and Kharzark all that time ago when the name of Shadow Walker was yet to be heard noticed how similar the situation was, so the did the only thing they thought was best course of action to do: avoid battle and watch the intruder from a safe distance. The armoured man noticed this and sighed, shaking his head at the apparent cowardice of the Planeptunian Basilicom guards.

"Come on now, at least give me a challenge, you pansies," the man taunted, causing a few of the hiding guards to mumble in dissatisfaction. "What's that? I can't hear you. Pfft, bastards, I hoped that they would prove at least a fun game to me, guess that's out of the window."

In utter disappointment the armoured man walked up to the elevator and peered at it quizzically, he had never seen anything like it before. Nonetheless he stepped inside and began to press buttons at random, to his shock the elevator – though he did not know that it was called that – moved him up a few levels, his curiosity had now been piqued completely. Instead of trying to find the portal between the Hyperdimension and the Ultradimension or attempting to go and find any guards to kill the man spent the next ten minutes pressing buttons, each time he appeared on a different floor his mind grew excited. In all of his travels he had never come across such a contraption as this, nor would he ever he thought.

Eventually he arrived on a floor that felt odd to him, but in a good way, the entire place had the scent of something he was after, the scent of dimension magic. The portal was close, he could feel it. With a grin he surged forward in an attempt to find his target. Yet again, much to his disappointment, there was no guards around for him to fight, the armoured man sighed and shook his head as he walked down the purple coloured hallways. The man stopped in front of a large, purple door and grinned: the portal was just inside. After applying the same amount of force into the door as he did at the entrance he sent it flying of its hinges and into the portal, the solid object disappeared into the swirling, white, grey and black vortex, the dimensional portal was surrounded by several small generator that seemed to be keeping the portal open, these generators were linked to small Share Crystals – pieces of Planeptune's Sharicite. The armoured man raised an eyebrow at the set-up before shrugging.

"Meh, whatever floats their boat I guess. Still, this isn't what I expected," the man mumbled as he began to channel his energy into the palms of his hands, his body slowly became engulfed in the dark blue energy like a flickering fire from a candle in the wind. Then, after several minutes of waiting, he swung his hands into the floor, the whole room cracked apart as the dark blue energy seeped out, engulfing the room and beginning the process of destroying everything in it. The armoured man grinned malevolently and walked out of the room as it crumbled apart, the machinery exploded and caused a fiery inferno to ravage what was left of the room, the portal disintegrated into nothing in both dimensions while the Share Crystals were stolen by the armoured man when he left. As he swung out of a window and used the bone claws on his gauntlets to climb the to the top of the Basilicom – the Nep Tower – he gasped for breath before once more channelling his energy into creating a smaller portal, this one was to take him away to where he needed to be.

"The experiment has begun, pity I won't be monitoring it though. No matter, I have a war to wage." As the portal opened the man could feel the fear and hatred that swept the minds of the guards who had evaded him, this only made him chuckle in amusement. "Foolish mortals, the more they fear and hate others the more powerful Kurome becomes, even I gain power just from those emotions. Well then, just as the old saying goes: 'Let them hate me as long as they fear me'." With that the man jumped into the portal, leaving behind many questions with no real answers.

* * *

 _Atop a large green hill_ _surrounded by smaller hills_ _and the ruins of a city_ _in the distance and a large, green field_ _amidst a darkening sky were two tall and heavily armoured figures fighting one another._ _The tallest of the two was covered in chainmail and leather armour with a bear's skin over his back, the head being covered by the bear's head and upper jaw, a mighty two-handed steel axe was in his hands, a longsword was strapped in its sheath to the man's left waist and a long, thick brown beard_ _flowed from his face._

 _His opponent was completely different. The other man was wearing a steel helmet with steel plates covering the sides, cheeks and back of the head,_ _a plume of_ _feathers stuck out of the top of the helmet from the very top to the bottom,_ _various thin but very flexible steel plates covered his chest, waist and upper arms,_ _thin chainmail covered the arms and legs_ _with steel plates covering pieces of he legs as well. A large, oval shaped shield with_ _an eagle painted on it and_ _steel rims along the side and a_ _small, round piece of metal in the centre, a short sword was in his right hand and a small dagger_ _was strapped to his waist._

 _The two warriors,_ _the_ _bear slaying barbarian and the_ _i_ _mperial champion,_ _parried blow after blow, the clashing of steel against steel sent sparks flying as they both vied for dominance on the hilltop._ _The barbarian_ _swung his mighty axe at the imperial champion, the blade just miss its mark as it became lodged into the grassy ground next to the imperial. The champion grinned and ran at his opponent, he shield bashed the barbarian warrior to the ground and_ _drove_ _his blade at the now grounded warrior beneath him,_ _hoping to strike a killer blow. He was soon to be proven disappointed. The barbarian swiftly kicked the imperial champion aside and sent him to the ground and punched him in the face, the two warriors then swapped their weapons f or their fists, both launched blow after blow with their bloodied fists._ _The imperial champion started to get up and kicked his opponent in the face before retrieving his shield. His sword was knocked away as the barbarian got back onto his feet, his axe in his hands and blood flowed from his nose._ _Once more the two warriors stared each other down before charging and doing battle once more._

We never paid any heed to the ancient prophecies, our arrogance blinded us to the stories and perils of the past, of what our forefathers handed down to us. For hundreds of years our life became stagnate, our pride made us blind to all danger that came, when danger came our world almost fell to a darkness that would have slaughtered and enslaved us all. War. We were at war. The arrogance of our forefathers led us to believe that war was nothing more than barbarian raids, how stupid we were then.

The Great War, that is what we called the conflict that almost destroyed us. We fought for our very survival. I watched the Imperial City burn, I watched the Empire crumble into warring states, I lead the armies to fight, to regain what we had lost. Wraith, my other friends and I fought and killed for the safety of this world, and we won. But the cost was too high to count. Once the Dark Lord was gone, when the Dark Captains had disappeared and when Wraith went after them I thought that this world would be at peace, I thought us imperials and barbarians could unite in a new commonwealth, even my lazy and laid back nature was compelled to make this world a better place. I was a complete idiot. Like fools we clung to our old hatreds and fought as we had done for generations.

 _The barbarian continuously swung his axe at the imperial champion, his pride overtaking his senses as he felt utterly confident in killing his sword-less opponent. The imperial champion raised his shield and blocked an incoming blow, the barbarian's blade pierced through the thick, wooden shield, the deadly steel coming close to the champion's face. The two warriors struggled over the current situation, both vie to gain the upper hand as the imperial's shield was wrested away as well as the barbarian's axe, then the two went blade to blade with sword and dagger. Their ferocity was tied, it was fast becoming a stalemate. There they stood and stared each other down, sweat flowed down their faces and became mixed with their blood. Lightning erupted from the sky, thunder echoed through the ears of the two warriors, thunderstorms were occurring and swirling formations were appearing in the dark, cloudy sky. The two warriors could sense something abnormal occurring, they stopped fighting and looked up at the sky to see it raining… raining in daemon fire._

Until the day the sky rained fire, and a new enemy fell upon us, one that would destroy us and all that we held dear to our hearts. The stories that Wraith would mumble to himself were true: the Legion of the Damned had come to harvest our world.

 _The two warriors watched the as large, fiery boulder-like objects fell from the heavens, these objects were crashing everywhere around the imperial and the barbarian for miles and miles, each one crashed into the earth with a thundering roar. Dozens upon dozens of boulder-like objects kept falling from the sky as it reddened, as if the very sky itself was on fire. The two warriors were no longer fighting each other, instead they stood side-by-side with their weapons in their hands and awaited whatever horror was to come. Then, just as they prepared themselves, something happened. Two large fiery boulders came hurdling out of the sky and crashed in front of them, causing the imperial and the barbarian to back off slightly, the barbarian's axe raised in front of him while the imperial held his sword in his two hands in front of him._

 _Out of the craters that had been created by the fiery boulders rose two rock-like monstrosities, daemons over twelve feet tall, made of a rocky substance with muscles made of red, green and dark blue fire, their eyes glowed like a fire and the daemon fire within flared at all joints, when their mouths opened fire erupted and flared about. Then something else happened, a comet was falling out of the sky and was making way towards the two warriors, they looked up and saw the fiery comet heading for them, they could only wonder what it was. It crashed in front of the two daemons, then the figure emerged from the crater and, to the amazement of the barbarian and the imperial, a man covered in steel, chainmail and bone armour with a steel and bone helmet, his eyes – at first a daemon red and brown – glowed dark blue, a wicked grin on his face. He raised his right hand and pointed it at the two warriors, the daemons roared and charged, to which the imperial and the barbarian looked at each other and nodded, then they charged to their deaths._

We stand now upon the brink of destruction. Our world will burn, our people will die but we shall fight. The End Times for my world has come, I pray to the gods that you, Wraith, never have to deal with such an event in your world. Now is the time for great yet unsung deeds, now is the time to die. So say I, Uriel the Ice Emperor, ruler of the Imperial Empire – or what's left of it.

* * *

The sky was dark and alight with fire, fireballs fell from the sky, the air was filled with smoke and the earth was covered in blood. The world was blazing in daemon fire, no one could survive, all were slaughtered. Imperial, barbarian, Leonian, bandit and pirate alike stood side-by-side to fight the daemonic hordes of the Legion of the Damned, hoping that through unity they could win. They were wrong. No matter how many stood together they could never win, no matter how many the coalition would kill the daemons would just keep on coming until there was nothing left but smoke, blood and mutilated corpses. No one was safe, man, woman, child and toddler were all indiscriminately butchered, some were thrown into fire pits while still alive, others were skewered alive from bottom to top, sometimes a few would even be eaten by those daemons who craved for bloodied flesh. In this way millions were destroyed within a matter of months. And yet the sky continued to rain fire as more daemons arrived on the scene. To the amazement – or shock – of everyone the Damned Legion was led not by any sort of daemon, but by a man, a human no less. Some called him the Bone Lord due to his armour, others referred to him as the Harbinger of Doom, the Thundering Storm or Lord of the Daemons. In any case he was not to be messed with.

After a year of total destruction a small band of imperials and barbarians had banded together in the last bastion of defence against the Damned Legion, a small fortress built into the mountainside where the survivors of the apocalypse would gather to defend whatever they had left. The fortress had been built during the early years of the Empire but had been abandoned for centuries, not even the Great War had made any use of the fortress, until now that is. As the very earth was being destroyed thousands of refugees made their way to the mountainside fortress, hoping that its high, thick, stone walls would protect them from the horrors of the outside world, away from the fire, the smoke and the bloodied earth. They turned to the one man they hoped would save them: Uriel the Ice Emperor.

After the end of the Great War Uriel had resumed his rule over what was left of his empire and began to bring order to the world, but that was always interrupted during his 'break times', these breaks occurred often and resulted in Uriel usually sleeping, playing any sort of game he could get his hands on and just laid about in general like a lazy person. He was known as the Ice Emperor due to his ability to use ice magic, Wraith was the one who taught him it. Many people though that Uriel would be able to beat back the daemonic tide and restore order, he was their last hope, their last bastion. The surviving people of the world were soon to be disappointed.

The Empire crumbled more quickly than anticipated, the Imperial City – still being repaired at the time – was forever destroyed and the foundations were all but torn out, then the western countries were burnt, driving the people eastward, then the Damned Legion headed after them. City after, town after town, village after village was destroyed and all the inhabitants either dead or displaced, not even Uriel or his closest friends could save them all. Then the hammer fell. Uriel, his friends, the surviving soldiers and citizens made their way to the mountain fortress, hoping to hide there until the Damned Legion would leave, but it never happened, instead the daemons found the fortress and the Bone Lord besieged it. The final bastion of humanity was about to be put to the sword.

The mountain fortress had a large, stone wall that curved inwards one one side and a big open field behind it, a large ramp led to a heavily fortified gate, around it stood a smaller wall with small holes for archers, then there was another wall further in the fortress around the inner courtyard, further away from that was the keep. Usually everything would be quiet and life would be dull, but not this time. For the last few days the fortress had been under attack by the forces of the Damned Legion, the first day had seen the daemons driven back from the outer wall, the second day saw more casualties occur for the humans and they almost lost the gate, when the third day arrived they all knew that it would be their last. The Bone Lord had arrived, his death magic conquered all before him, with it he powered up the daemonic siege weapons and blasted a whole in the outer wall and the daemonic soldiers ran in, hoping to slaughter all they could find. But their progress would be challenged.

From atop the ruined battlements were a few hundred archers, crossbowmen and mages, their arrows, bolts and spell pierced through the hides of the daemons. They edged on by a woman with shortish blonde hair, two green eyes, a steel breastplate with steel plated arms, legs and boots, her helmet was missing, her hands were alight with holy magic, the sparkling balls of light were as bright as the sun. Her palms were pointed towards a large horde of daemons who had taken over a part of the battlements. " **Heaven's** **Flame!** " the woman shouted as the holy energy burst from her hands and engulfed the daemons, many soon became nothing more than ash, the rest were picked off by the rest of her soldiers.

As soon as that was over a man cam running up to her, breathing in and out deeply, his sword and armour covered in dark blood. The man wore the same outfit as the green eyed woman, except his had dents recently made all across it, his hair was brown with black marks while his bushy goatee was also multicoloured, his only working eye was of a dark orange colour, an eye patch covered his left eye and a scar ran down his left cheek. As he stared at his counterpart a big grin formed on his face. "Juvia, I'm on seventeen so far," he said proudly.

The woman – Juvia Red-Axe – smirked and crossed her arms. "Is that it? I'm on twenty-eight. Beat that, Lucius."

Lucius Amullius gritted his teeth and snarled. "What?! I'll have no barbarian woman outscoring me!" He then swung his short, steel sword at a nearby daemon and slashed it across its neck, the imperial then held the sword upside down and pierced the daemon's head. "There, that's eighteen, only ten more of these bastards to kill 'till I've caught up."

"By the time you have done that I would be already up to the forties."

"Like hell you will, I will never let a barbarian defeat me in a kill count game!"

As they argued away the sounds of ice shattering ran through their ears, they looked to their left and saw ice shards falling to the ground. "Looks like Uriel's ice barrier didn't do much," Juvia pointed out.

"You will address him as emperor," Lucius reminded the barbarian woman firmly. "He may be a lazy, childish, good-for-nothing at times but he is still our emperor, and you do well to remember that."

"But an emperor of what? Look around you, Lucius, we are the last humans in this gods-forsaken world, there is no Empire. This world is as good as dead."

"Then we fight to the last man, woman and child."

"Look around you, Lucius, some of these people can't even fight! Sometimes I wonder if that head of yours is even screwed on properly."

Just then a loud, thundering noise erupted nearby from two end, the first was that another part of the outer wall had been destroyed, the other was the gate being torn asunder. A soldier ran up to the two commanders, his face was covered in blood and sweat. "Generals, we've lost the outer wall, we cannot hold on any longer. What are your orders?"

Juvia and Lucius looked around them to see thousands of corpses laying across the battlefield, blood covered almost every single piece of stone and grass, yet as their forces dwindled more and more daemons surged forth for the final kill. The barbarian and the imperial looked out to see daemons covered in blood red skin and scaled armour with chains marching towards them, the daemons were about sixteen feet tall and carried huge axes, longswords and long blades coming out of their very skin around their hands, some had wings and horns as well. Lucius growled and gripped his sword tightly, Juvia was the one to issue the order.

"Soldier, gather as many as you can and head over to the keep," Juvia instructed. "Go, now."

The soldier nodded and ran back to the battlefield to do as Juvia said, Lucius looked over at his friend and appeared to be disheartened. "We're not going to win, are we?"

"Us wining? Heh, that would be a joke, we never stood a chance against these bastards in the first place. All we can do now is fall back to the keep and make our last stand there, if we are lucky enough to even get there though. I doubt Uriel is having a good time over at the gate."

Lucius was about to correct Juvia but stopped himself from doing so, she would just brush it off anyway. "So what are we going to do?" he asked her.

"Make way to the keep as soon as all out soldiers retreat, then we will wait for Uriel if he isn't already there. If he isn't then I hope that Terminus Maximus can get him back, if he isn't already dead."

As they said that more daemons smashed their way through the broken gate, slaughtering anyone in their path. No one could stand in their way, no even Emperor Uriel and his ice magic. The mildly tall, sky blue eyed man with thick, spiky black hair and scarred, steel plated armour with a ruby in the centre stood firm against all opposition, ice barriers protected those who retreated and his ice shards pierced all those who attacked him and his soldiers. But it was not enough to hold the daemons back. Uriel raised his left hand and pointed it towards a fairly large, floating daemon with horns, four eyes and dark grey skin. " **Ice Shard!** " Uriel shouted as a large shard of ice sprang forth from his hands and straight into the daemons head.

Next to Uriel stood one of his most accomplished commanders: Terminus Maximus, former admiral of the Imperial Navy. Now an old man he was prepared to fight and die in the defence of his friend and emperor. Terminus clashed blades with a daemonic soldier and parried the incoming blows, he then sidestepped his opponent and brought his blade through the daemon's neck, slicing his head off for good. "I'm too old for this," Terminus moaned as he wiped the dark blood off his sword.

Then came a cry from he battlements, it was full of fear. "The Bone Lord! The Bone Lord has come!" The soldier then let out a gasp and fell backwards off the battlements, landing on the ground with a sickening crunch.

Uriel and Terminus looked out the ruined gate and saw the Bone Lord marching towards them and their surviving soldiers, all could sense the deathly aura that emitted from him, in his hands he carried a two-handed sword made from the bones of an unknown creature. When the Bone Lord arrived at the gate he gazed around and grinned in his wicked way. "To think that Agandur had so much trouble with these people, what an idiot," the Bone Lord muttered to himself.

Uriel gripped his sword tightly and as ice began to form in his left hand he charged at the Bone Lord, the two clashed blade to blade, despite being covered in head to toe in chainmail, steel plated armour and bone plated armour the Bone Lord was utterly flexible with his movements, although Uriel guessed that is was because of the dark blue energy flowing around him. They both parried each other's swords and came face-to-face with each other. "Just what are you?" Uriel asked through his clenched teeth as both vied for supremacy.

"Wouldn't you like to know, eh? Call me whatever you want, I don't care," came the reply. "Though I must say, I _hate_ speaking in this language of yours. Speaking in the Hynafol Tafod is far more better."

Before Uriel could question him any further the Bone Lord twisted his arms around and his elbow collided with the emperor's face, he then swung his bone sword around him and slashed Uriel across his right arm before stabbing him around the waist. "Tch, missed," the Bone Lord grumbled in annoyance as his opponent snarled, blood starting to flow out of his mouth.

The Bone Lord was soon forced to kick Uriel off his sword and focus on Terminus, the old admiral had come to his emperor's aid, as they clashed blade to blade, although the Bone Lord was quicker than his new opponent. As soldiers carried Uriel off to the keep the young emperor watched as his old friend and mentor, Terminus Maximus, fight and be killed by the Bone Lord, the bone sword piercing through the old man's chest before the Bone Lord withdrew his blade and decapitated the former admiral, his blood decorated the ground as utter chaos broke out.

* * *

"What are we going to do now?" Lucius asked Juvia, who was pacing around the room.

"How should I know?" came the reply. "We're stuck in here until those daemonic bastards smash their way through here."

"Then I say we fight them when they get in, one last glorious stand."

"There won't be anything glorious about it, once they smash through all that rubble we will be slaughtered and our flesh will be feasted upon."

Uriel said nothing, instead he sat in a corner of the stone walled room, his expression was full of depression and sadness. He, Lucius and Juvia were the last humans in their world, the rest had been slaughtered when the survivors retreated to the keep, hoping to make a last stand there, but it turned into a bloodbath. Men, women and children were killed and everyone tried to run away and hide, hoping to survive the carnage, but they, too, were found and killed. Uriel, Lucius and Juvia made their way to a storage room in the keep to heal their wounds before returning to the battle, but the entrance caved in and sealed them off from everyone else, thus they were forced to suffer as they listened to the wailing cries of everyone who was unfortunate enough to stand in their way.

"I will not die in here, not like this," Lucius grumbled as he paced around the room.

"Grumbling will get you nowhere," Juvia told her imperial counterpart.

"What else is there that we can do?! Nothing!"

"Stop fighting, please," Uriel mumbled to his two friends, they both looked at him and sighed.

"He's having one of his depression moments again, isn't he?" Lucius asked Juvia.

The barbarian nodded her head solemnly. "Yeah. Ever since his grandfather and father died he's been dealing with depression, now that millions of people have been slaughtered and after today's events I doubt he'll be alright, if we ever get out of this alive."

As Uriel shivered and clutched his knees Lucius pondered over Juvia's words, he paced around the room and listened to the sounds of daemons trying to dig their way through the rubble that separated them and their foe. Then Lucius had a thought, an idea that could save them. The imperial commander turned around and looked down at Uriel, the emperor was being comforted by Juvia. "Your majesty, is it true that Wraith taught you dimension magic? The type of magic that can transport people from one dimension to another?" Lucius asked his emperor.

Uriel looked up weakly and nodded. "I can, what about it though?"

"Use it, we have to get out of here and get some assistance so when the next fight takes place we can win. We have to find Wraith and get his help."

"What use would it be?"

Lucius sighed and knelt in front of Uriel, their eyes meeting. "Think of what your father and grandfather would have done, think of what Wraith would have done. Besides, we all owe him a debt and I aim to repay it, I hate being in debt to other people. We have to survive so we can get revenge later on down the road, once that happens this horror will be over. What do you say about that, sire?"

Uriel nodded and got onto his feet. "A-Alright then." The young man then raised his hands into the air before him, his palms pointed towards a nearby stone wall, he channelled his magical power through him into his hands, then sparks began to form in front of him. The sounds of metal smashing through rubble came closer and closer, Juvia and Lucius looked back behind them to see dust falling down and a hole emerged with a daemon looking through, Juvia drew her sword and stabbed her blade into the daemon's eye, a howling, blood-curdling cry was heard afterwards.

"Hurry!" Juvia cried out as the rubble fell apart and several daemonic soldiers came charging through.

"There!" Uriel shouted as a portal opened. "Come on, hurry up and get in!"

Juvia slashed the head off one daemon before jumping into the portal, followed swiftly by Lucius who grabbed Uriel and pulled him through just as a daemon was about to stab him in the back. As they disappeared along with the portal the Bone Lord walked in, he sniffed the air and mumbled in his language. "Dimension magic. So that brat knew it too. Oh well, it does not matter, this world is ours." He looked over at one of the daemons and grinned. "Ravage this world and prepare for next year's invasion."

* * *

The journey through the portal was an eye opener for Uriel, Lucius and Juvia, the three of them looked around them and saw the utter darkness of the Void cobbled together with the white, grey and black colours of the portal enveloping around them, they could see distant stars which made up all of the different dimensions. They seemed to be heading towards one star that was getting closer to them, but before they reached it and leave the Void they were hit by two comets. The comets were not actually comets, but they dimension travellers did not know that at first. Because of that Uriel, Lucius and Juvia were sent off course, the two imperials were sent hurdling towards another point in the Void with the two 'comets' while Juvia was sent towards a nearby dimension.

Uriel and Lucius crash landed into the new dimension and smashed to the ground, for some reason there was no damage done to them and they felt fine, at first at least, they soon started to get stomach aches and headaches. As Uriel got up off the ground and leaned on a nearby wall he looked up at the sky and was in for a shock: the sky was a mix of dark purple and dark blue, the very sky appeared to be cracking apart as if reality was tearing itself apart. Everywhere around them buildings were in ruins, even the road was ripped asunder. The architecture was completely different to what they two imperials were used to. Lucius looked around him and grumbled in annoyance.

"Oh great, from one apocalypse to another. At least the sky isn't on fire this time," Lucius grumbled.

"Yeah, you're right about that. But where the hell are we? And where did those two comets land?"

"Only way we'll know is if we take a look."

Uriel nodded and together the two imperials began to wander around this new, strange, apocalyptic world. Both wondered what they would find and what people they would encounter, they also wondered if they would meet Juvia and Wraith again, but Uriel had his doubts. Little did they know how involved they would become in this dimension's problems.

* * *

 **A/N: Huzzah, finally done, and we reached over 255k words! Thank you all for reading this far, I hope you stick to the very end and enjoy what will come next. Some clues into who the Bone Lord is in this chapter, can anyone guess who or what he is? Maybe a future chapter will explain it, or not. Does the description of Uriel's and Lucius' location ring any bells? If so then that is a clue to what I have in store for future content. The next chapter might take some time to complete, the reason: a lemon. That's right, chapter 54 will contain a lemon. Want to know who it will contain? You'll just have to find out when it is released. Until then have a good day readers and may the gods favour you all.**


	55. A Game of Masochism

**Chapter 54: A Game of Masochism**

* * *

 **A/N: Warning, sexual content ahead! You must be of a proper age to read this content, if you are younger then please do not read this, I do not want to be held responsible for any perverted actions you may commit afterwards - or bad dreams in some cases.**

* * *

A few days had passed since the festival in Lastation, with that event over everyone dispersed back to their homes and waited to see what would happen next, but when news reached them about the incident in Planeptune where the portal linking the Hyperdimension and the Ultradimension was closed it raised all sorts of questions. Blanc, Rom, Ram and Brian returned to Lowee, Noire and Uni stayed in Lastation to oversee the reconstruction, Vert returned to Leanbox while Neptune, Nepgear, Peashy, Compa, IF and Victor made their way back to Planeptune, meanwhile Angel and Plutia went somewhere else. They two sadists travelled with Vert to Leanbox until they stopped at Angel's parent's home, the young man wanted to see his parents again. Angel's sadistic mother and senile father were quite happy that their son had come to see them, and his mother was even more pleased about her son bringing his girlfriend with him. Angel and Plutia had lived in his parent's house for a few days now, they had been playing games together, sleeping or just wandered around the rice fields together.

However, this day felt different, the atmosphere just felt somewhat different around Angel and Plutia, the young man could not place it but he felt as if something was going on with the sleepy goddess, as if she was different. At least, that is what he thought. Angel knew that something was gnawing at Plutia's mind, as if something was trying to get her to commit some sort of act. Apart from that nothing else seemed to be effecting her state of mind, or her actions, although Angel had been hearing some odd moaning noises coming from the bathroom late at night for the last two nights, but Plutia seemed to be her usual, sleepy self.

On this particular day Angel and Plutia were playing a first-person shooter game on the TV, the sadistic mother was out in the city shopping and had taken the senile father with her – apparently the reason this had occurred was that Angel's father had stuffed up a small part of the rice fields, so his punishment was being taken to the city, he had always hated it. During the first hour of gameplay Plutia almost fell to sleep, it was early in the afternoon and she would usual doze off at around that time as Angel found out, much to his shock, at any rate the young man looked over at her and raised an eyebrow.

"Already sleepy?" he asked. "We're only just an hour through. Come on, you can do better than that."

"Sorry, Angie, but I'm rather tired," Plutia yawned, her arms stretched out across the light brown sofa. "Do you mind if I sleep out here?"

"Course not, if you need a pillow there's a spare one in my room, help yourself."

Plutia smiled at the young man as she got up. "Thank, Angie." As she staggered off down the hallway she bumped into a wall and almost fell over, the small goddess managed to stand on her two feet and enter Angel's room where the young man heard her collapse onto his bed.

 _She's probably already asleep. Oh well, that just means I'll have to try even harder with this game. Hmm, come to think of it, Plutia has been rather sleepy lately, more than usual anyway, not to mention she's been staying up late at night. The hell could she be doing up late at that hour?_

Angel could think of a few reasons, but the most prominent idea linked together Plutia and the moaning he had been hearing lately, once he thought about it he felt his manhood start to harden. "Down boy, down! Now is not the time for that, that comes later," Angel instructed his hardened manhood as he got back into the game, attempting to focus all his energy into it, yet the thought of a certain goddess pleasuring herself never left his mind. Eventually after ten minutes he won a match and sighed with relief, as he reached over for his coffee mug he realised he had run out of his favourite drink. "Damn it, and I'm running out of energy too. I think I might have some more in my room, better check just in case."

Angel paused the game, got off the sofa and made his way to his room, when he arrived outside the door he heard some strange noises coming from inside, it sounded like soft moaning to his ears. When the young man peered into the darkened room he saw something which he had only dreamt about in his perverted dreams: there, on his bed, was a semi-naked Plutia. Plutia's panties were hanging around her feet, her small breasts were out in the open, her dress was undone and surrounded her belly, her right hand was hovering around her vagina where the young man could see two of her fingers slowly going in and out, her other hand was around her left breast where she was twisting her hardened nipple. All of this, coupled together with her drooling expression, made Angel's hear skip a beast, he could feel his cock harden and the tip began to bulge out of his pants.

"Whoa, that's hot," Angel mumbled to himself.

However, his words stirred Plutia from her self-pleasuring moment, she stopped what she was doing and looked up at the door to see Angel peering through the gap, her face turned bright red and she found it difficult to speak at first. "A-A-A-Angie?"

That was when Angel said the last words he thought he would say to Plutia. "Need a hand there?"

Plutia was at a loss for words, instead she nodded as a response. The young man entered the room, knelt down by the bed and gazed at the already wet pussy of Plutia, he moved his right hand towards it and rubbed the outside, causing her to moan in pleasure. Feeling a bit more confident Angel smirked and stuck two fingers into the small goddess, she began to drool as Angel inserted a third finger into her pussy, slowly moving in and out, her inner walls tightened around them. His other hand snaked up her body until reached her right breast, Angel's fingers began twisting her hardened nipple while he grew even more bold and jabbed a fourth finger into her. Plutia was at the mercy of Angel, and she wanted more.

"You're pretty tight, Plutia," Angel told her as he quickened his movements, causing Plutia to cry out in ecstasy, she could feel something wanting to escape in her lower body.

"Angie, I'm… I'm cumming!" Plutia shouted as her nectar spilled out all over his hand, her inner walls almost trapping the young man's fingers. He pulled them out and licked them clean, savouring the taste.

"Rather sweet, I like it," Angel said, his tongue licking his lips clean.

He then began to quickly take his clothes off while Plutia recovered from her orgasm, when the goddess looked back at her lover she saw him without clothes and a hardened cock near her face. She removed what was left of her dress, crawled onto her knees and stared directly at Angels throbbing manhood, the petite goddess gently grabbed hold of the erected flesh and stroked it, her hand moving up and down. The moans that emitted from Angel meant that she was doing something right. With that in mind she smiled at Angel before putting the tip of his penis into her mouth, she sucked on it gently while stroking his shaft. Angel held onto Plutia's head as she sucked away at his phallus, his fingers running through her hair, she then moved from stroking his member to massaging his testicles, causing the young man to moan even louder.

"Yeah… just like that," moaned Angel, his eyes closed as the feeling washed over him.

Plutia took it a step further by wrapping her tongue around his shaft, her tongue danced around the erected flesh and licked away. When Plutia felt his cock starting to throb she knew that he was reaching his climax, with that she swallowed his cock, her lips touching the bottom of his shaft as she bobbed up and down. The sucking noises that were made only drove Angel further into a sex crazed state, his firm grip on Plutia's head tightened as he began to thrust deeper into Plutia's mouth, the tip of is cock rubbed against the back of the CPU's neck.

"Plutia, I'm about to cum, you better swallow every last drop," Angel informed her.

The small goddess responded by wrapping her tongue around his shaft once more as she bobbed her head up and down, her arms wrapped around his bare buttocks, his thrusting became quicker as he neared his eventual orgasm. "Plutia… I'm cumming!"

True to his word he let out a payload of semen into Plutia's mouth and the back of her throat, she gagged as she swallowed her meal, strands of it escaped her mouth and flowed down her chin onto the bed and floor below. Once she finish swallowing Plutia leaned back and gasped for air while Angel fell to the ground and slid down the wall, he panted for air and closed his eyes, pleased wit hall that had happened so far, but there was much more that he wanted to do. When he opened his eyes he found himself staring at the face of a completely naked Iris Heart, the sadistic CPU was smirking wickedly as she began to stroke his throbbing cock.

"Did you have fun, Angie?" Iris asked, her fingers wrapped around his manhood and gave it a tight squeeze, sending small strands of semen onto their legs. "Using me as a plaything, a dog? I bet you did. But it's my turn now, and I have so much in store for you~"

The CPU then lunged forwards and locked lips with her lover, their tongues danced around in each other's mouths, her arms wrapped around his neck while his began to fondle her voluptuous breasts. As he fiddled around with her nipples she drew back and gave him a frightening look. "Did I say you could fondle me like some sort of toy?"

Angel shook his head. "No, Plutia."

"That's Madame Goddess to you. Hmm, looks like I'll have to punish you~" Angel's face lit up as she said that, his masochistic side took over his mind within a few seconds. Iris Heart noticed the sudden change and giggled as she got off the young man, her entire body bare for him to see. "Looks like someone wants some fun. Now, be a good boy and lay down on the bed, would you?"

Angle did as he was told while the sadistic goddess began to salvage through some boxes underneath the bed, he quickly got off the floor and laid on the bed, waiting for what Iris Heart had in store for him. When she came into vision she was holding some rope in her left hand and a crop – a small whip – in her right, it was somewhat clear what she intended to do to Angel. As she leaned over him her breasts smothered his face while she tied his wrists to the bed frame behind him, much to the young man's disappointment she got off him and tied his legs to either side of the bed, the CPU then turned back to Angel and smiled deviantly. "Now then, I want to hear you squeal like a pig, and remember: no cumming until I say so," she said, grinned as she began to swat the crop against Angel's face, chest, waist and finally butt, red marks formed wherever he was hit with the tool.

Much to Iris Heart's amusement Angel did just that: squeal like a pig. In fact one could say that the young man was having a bit too much fun. The CPU smirked and stopped beating Angel with the crop, she then straddled him around the waist, his dick rubbing against her vagina. Iris Heart moaned seductively as she saw Angel biting his lower lip in response to the rubbing, the CPU raised an eyebrow at first before coming up with an idea. She started to moved up and down, her dripping pussy spilled pre-cum all over his cock, lubricating it as her movements became quicker. Angel was mesmerised by it all, especially the way her large breasts would sway up and down.

"Mmmm~ You really want my breasts, don't you?" Iris asked the horny young man, she got a quick nod as a response. "Well then, do you like it if I do this?"

The CPU grabbed her well endowed breasts and slapped them around Angel's dick, catching the young masochist by surprise. Then Iris Heart started to move up and down rapidly, she grinned at him and would lick the top of his penis whenever it bulged out of her boobs, the CPU drooled out saliva and lubricated the hardened object. It was not long for her to start noticing that her 'toy' was twitching, ready to spill forth its contents once more. "Hmm, I'll let you cum this time. So go ahead, I'm waiting, give me all of your hot, sticky semen~"

The dirty talk did the trick, Angel reached his climax and thick strands of sperm spurted forth and all over Iris Heart's chest, face and even her mouth, she stopped what she was doing and started to lick all of his cum off her face and chest, she hungrily swallowed all she could get. Once done the CPU looked at Angel and gave him a seductive smile. "Hmm, not bad, I think I can get use to it," the sexy goddess said after she finished licking her fingers dry. "Now then, what shall I do with you next?"

After thinking it over for a moment Iris Heart grinned as she thought of something, suddenly she sat on Angel's stomach with his cock rubbing up against her buttocks, the CPU looked down at her lover's face to see him getting all excited. "Fascinating, and your cock it still rock hard, I'm impressed," Iris Heart said as she held onto Angel's shoulders. "I want to see how much of my tits you can take, so get ready~"

With that Iris Heart stuffed Angel's face with her voluptuous bosom, the young man greedily took in as much as he could into his mouth, he used his tongue to lick and suckle at each of her nipples when he swapped breast for breast. The voluptuous goddess moaned and wrapped her arms around Angel as she began to grind her ass against his hardened member, both moaned loudly in ecstasy. Iris Heart could feel something building up in her nether regions, from the twitching feeling she was getting from Angel's cock it felt as if something was ready to burst again, feeling her climax approaching she repositioned herself on top of the young man's face. Angel immediately began to eat her out, his tongue searched through every part of her pussy as the CPU began to ride him, both became lost in their own desires as Iris reached her orgasm.

"I'm cumming!" Iris Heart exclaimed loudly as she used one of her hands to hold Angel's head in place while the other grabbed a firm hold on the young man's manhood, preventing him to ejaculate. When the CPU stopped spilling her nectar she leaned back and gasped for air as she repositioned herself back onto Angel's stomach. But the young man had a problem.

"Hey, why did you stop me from ejaculating?" he asked as he breathed for air.

"Because I did not give you permission to do so, and I can see that there's some cum already starting to come out. Oh dear, seems like I'll have to punish you again~" The sadistic goddess turned over to her rear was facing her lover while one hand remained firmly around his cock, then to the young man's surprise he felt Iris Heart snake her free hand around his left thigh and downward until it reached the last place he wanted anything near, even his masochistic side would have had second thoughts. Angel could feel Iris Heart's fingers tracing circle around the entrance tp his anus.

"Wh-What the hell do you think you're doing?!" Angel blurted out, causing the CPU to turn her head around and look back at him with a devious smirk.

"Oh nothing, just experimenting is all," was the reply he was given.

Then came the finger jabbing. Angel clenched his teeth and groaned as Iris Heart stuck a finger into his anus, the finger swirled around in circles for a short moment before the young man could feel it digging further up, then came a second finger which swiftly followed the first. Iris Heart was grinning malevolently as she prodded away at Angel's ass, her fingers moved in and out as she drooled at the sight of her own fantasies while still keeping a firm hold on the young man's dick, preventing him to ejaculate, although he did not want to do that at this precise moment due to the attack being made against his ass. Then he remembered something: it was like that scene he accidentally saw in Vert's graphical yaoi manga, except this was with fingers.

"S...Stop… stop it, Plutia," Angel pleaded weakly.

"Hmm, no. And that's Madame Goddess to you. Just for that I'm going to even have some more fun, hehehe~"

Angel could not take it any more, yes, he was a masochist but this was not something he was prepared for, in fact this is what he wanted to do to the sexy yet sadistic woman on top of him. He had to do something about it. _D-Damn it, I want to take control of this, but… b-b-but… ooooh_ _hh_ _._ _Wait, the rope around my hands is loose, I… I can feel it coming loose, yes, yes… now to take my revenge._ Angel slipped his hands out of the rope that held them together as he withstood Iris Heart's assault, when suddenly, to her surprise and shock, a firm pair of hands grabbed her by the ass and threw her to the ground, ending her finger-job. When she looked up the CPU saw Angel untying the rope around his legs, once he did that he stood over Iris Heart, a wicked grin plastered on his face. "Heh, it's my turn now," he said as he glowed brightly, when the light disappeared Wolf Heart stood in his place, Iris Heart noted how more well endowed her lover was when he transformed.

Wolf Heart swiftly grabbed a firm hold on Iris and stuck his tongue down her throat, the two scrambled for dominance as they sucked each other's tongues while groping whatever they could get a hand on. Eventually Wolf Heart broke away from the wild kissing moment and firmly took hold of his lover's legs, he moved them aside and positioned his cock at the entrance of her lower lips. "What do you think you're doing?!" Iris demanded, failing to take away the look of pure enjoyment away from her face. "I am supposed to be in contro- AAHHH!~"

Iris Heart stopped talking and bit her lower lip as Wolf Heart sheathed his dick into her vagina, claiming the last essence of their innocence. As the wolf-like CPU's cock became fully entrenched in the honey pot of Iris Heart her inner walls closed around his cock, the sensation was fully erotic and enticing for the two of them. Now it was Iris' turn to be on the receiving end. Wolf Heart held her down as his thrusts became swifter and harder, he grinned as he watched his lover's breasts jiggle around due to the movements, the drool flowing down her mouth and into the floor, her legs and arms wrapped around him and she moaned to her hearts content. She was being dominated, and she loved it, utterly and completely loved it. As Wolf Heart's thrusts became harder and deeper she could feel him penetrating her womb. "Ooooh, oh fuck yes. Fuck yes! Fuck me harder! Your Goddess demands it!" Iris demanded.

"Beg first," Wolf Heart replied as his assault slowed down, much to Iris' disappointment. "I'll stop and wont continue if you don't beg."

"Please, master, I beg you to fuck me as hard as you can."

"Hmm, alright then." With that the wolf-like CPU resumed his assault, pounding away at Iris' pussy like there was no tomorrow. The wet sounds of flesh slapping against flesh echoed throughout the whole house, that and stifled groans and loud moans. As Wolf Heart penetrated Iris' womb once more he felt the tingling sensation in his crotch again. "I'm going to cum in you now," he informed her.

"Go ahead, give me all you got, Angie~"

Then Wolf Heart let out a massive load of sperm, the semen spurted forth through Iris' system and penetrated her womb, she moaned in ecstasy before nibbling on Wolf's right ear as he retracted his throbbing dick out of her pussy, semen spilt out onto the floor. However, he was not done just yet. He flipped Iris over until she was on all fours, then the CPU felt the tip of his cock rubbing against the entrance of her anus while his hands got a firm hold of her waist. "So that's what you're going to do, is it? Fuck me in the ass?"

"Yeah, that sums it up," Wolf replied. "You see, you've got such a nice ass that I simply can't ignore it, besides, I still need revenge for all the fingers that you put up my ass. Prepare yourself!" With that he lunged forward and penetrated his cock fully into Iris' ass, she arched back and moaned in a mix of pain and pleasure, but Wolf Heart started to thrust hard and deep into her anal cavity without relent, taking immense pleasure from the whole ordeal. "Wow, your ass is a lot tighter than I thought."

Iris Heart said nothing at first, except she moaned again and again after each thrust, she could feel his cock reach further and further into her ass with each single thrust. "Oooh, oh yeah! Fuck me, Angie, fuck me with all you got!"

"I planned on doing that anyway." For the next several minutes they had wild, untamed sex as Wolf Heart fucked his lover in the ass with pause or any sign of concern. To add to the wildness of it all the wolf-like CPU picked up the crop that Iris had used on him a short while ago, with it he slapped the sadomasochistic CPU on the rear, causing her to moan in pleasure. "More," she begged quietly.

"What was that? I couldn't hear you."

"I said more, give me more!"

Wolf Heart grinned and continued his assault, his cock carved its way through Iris Heart while he reddened both her ass cheeks with the crop, he almost broke it at one point. After what seemed like an eternity of pure bliss both were starting to run out of energy, which was strange for Wolf Heart – he later summed it up to a problem in his transformations. As he pounded away at Iris' ass he began to pant for air and sweat dropped from his forehead, the CPU of the Ultradimension Planeptune was not in any better shape. As the last of his strength faded Wolf howled like a wild dog. "Last time today I'm afraid, I'm cumming!"

"Me too! Cum in my ass, I want all of it in my tight, hot ass! AH~"

As jets of semen ejaculated from Wolf and painted the inner walls of Iris Heart's anus her pussy let out a bucket load of her nectar, after moaning loudly for a short moment they both fell to the ground, Wolf's cock still embedded in her tight ass, but that was about to get even tighter. A blinding flash of light enveloped Iris Heart and when Wolf looked back he was left staring at a worn out Plutia, naked and with Wolf's penis still in her ass – which was incredibly tighter than before. Due to this the wolf-like CPU squirted out more thick strands of semen into the small goddess's anus until a small strand began to flow out, when he finally pulled out he reverted back to human form and fell to the floor, exhausted and ready to rest from all that happened.

"Hey, Plutia, are you alright?" Angel asked, worried that he might have gone overboard beforehand.

Plutia looked up at him and smiled as she repositioned herself next to him. "I'm fine, Angie, I'm just realllly tired."

"Get some sleep then, I need it as well after all of that." As Plutia wrapped her arms around Angel and began to doze off to sleep the young man looked around his room and sighed, shaking his head at what he was looking at. He had a lot of cleaning to do before his parents returned. "Um, Plutia, will we be doing this again in the near future?"

The small goddess opened and giggled. "Of course we will, we'll be doing this a lot. I love you, Angie."

Angel chuckled as Plutia rested her head against his chest and nuzzled into a comfortable position. "Right back at ya. I love you too, Plutia." With that the two sadomasochists fell to sleep, the young man hoped that his parents would not be home for quite some time in case he had to explain all the mess in his room.

* * *

 **A/N: Got this done much, much earlier than anticipated, kinda proud actually - sort of. So how was my first lemon? Good? Bad? Alright but needs some refining? I've wanted to write a lemon for this story for a while now, so this seemed like a good opportunity to do so. I am planing on another lemon for a couple of chapters down the road, can you guess which characters will be in it for the next one? Anyway, these lemon chapters will be shorter than most other chapters that I come up with these days, at least 4000 words or just above – or maybe less – at least, short and full of action. Have a good day readers and see you all next time with the next chapter.**


	56. A Day at R-18 Island

**Chapter 55: A Day at R-18 Island**

Over a week and a half passed after Angel's and Plutia's 'moment' together, during that time there had been no signs of Dark Captain or Follower activity which aroused the suspicions of Histoire and the other CPUs. IF and Victor went on a scouting party in the southern regions of Planeptune to find any kind of activity only to return in disappointment, it was as if the surviving Dark Captains had vanished from the face of the world. With all traces of the Dark Captains and their Followers gone the Oracle of Planeptune had decided to gain the aid of Wraith, but he too had vanished from the face of the world, at least it seemed that way. One day the CPUs and their friends were given an invitation of sorts – more like a letter – to attend a beach resort, courtesy of an anonymous person, along with the letters was some instructins telling them to gather at the Leanbox Basilicom where they can regroup before heading out to the destination of the resort: R-18 Island. There they might find who sent the letters, maybe.

Much had changed since the 'Eden Crisis' when Anonydeath, Rei Ryghts and a brainwashed Peashy had taken over the island and founded a new, short-lived nation – Eden. After the crisis was over the island was abandoned and no one was allowed to return there until further notice. In fact it was only recently that the island was reopened for business, and there had been quite a few changes. R-18 Island was now not just a beach for swimmers and nudists alike but it had turned into an actual resort, although it was rather small and was in a run-down state due to the lack of visitors, not to mention that the actual hotel was still in construction. Apart from that everything was quite normal, well, as normal as one can be on an island where you gain entry on your looks – much to Blanc's and even Uni's chagrin.

When they did all finally group together outside the Leanbox Basilicom the group of CPUs and human friends – and loved ones – made their way to R-18 island. Along the way Brian, who was being carried by White Heart, gazed around the area before him. He saw an archipelago of several small islands filled with trees, further to the south the young man spotted a much larger island filled with a small forest and a small hill or two, from what he could see there also appeared to be a few buildings connected together and under construction, but there was a smaller building where people where exiting. This was R-18 Island, and it was open for business.

"Hey, Blanc, you've been there before, what's it like?" Brian asked the CPU of Lowee as he swiped some his hair off his face due to the incoming breeze.

White Heart clicked her tongue around, trying to come up with an answer that could help Brian understand what it was like, eventually she found an answer. "It was… okay I guess. The beach was rather nice, although it was populated by nudists, all of them were women though. And don't even get me started on the entrance and all that, those bastards are all bouncy breast loving perverts. Tch, assholes."

"So it wasn't all that good I take it?"

White Heart shook her head. "Nah, it wasn't. They're discriminative to those with small breasts, so me and Plutia had a hard time trying to get in. In the end I just smashed my way in."

Brian looked up at White Heart and raised an eyebrow, he also quickly noticed how the incoming breeze from the south-west blew the CPU's blue hair across her face, her hair waved in a way that Brian found strikingly beautiful, in a way. "Seriously? Plutia had a hard time trying to get in? Couldn't she just use HDD and be done with it?"

White Heart shook her head. "No, she was banned from using it by Neptune and Nepgear, apparently she was rather scary when she transformed. Well, we all know that now don't we?"

"Yeah, we sure do. So, do you think they'll let you in? If they are still discriminative towards flat chested women not only would you have a problem but so would Rom, Ram, Uni and IF."

"Guess we can only hope then."

"Hope… heh. Hope is the first step on the road to disappointment."

The Lowean CPU looked down and appeared rather surprised at what the young man in her arms had just said, it was not something he would usually say in this given situation, she also noticed how his fingers were starting to twitch. "Brian, what's wrong? Your fingers are twitching and you're saying things you usually don't."

"What? Oh, sorry about that, I'm not sure myself. It just… came to me for some reason when I looked at the sea. I don't know why, but for some reason I feel something… something weird whenever I look out at the sea before me. It feels like… I don't know, homecoming for something close to that."

"Maybe the sea around Leanbox and Planeptune is the Sundering Sea that Wraith spoke of a while back, maybe you're feeling this way because the Old World lies out there at the bottom of the ocean."

"Yeah, guess you're right."

As Brian stopped talking White Heart noticed how distant he seemed, it reminded her of when they first met, how he appeared to be friendly while also trying to get away from everyone. It actually made her sad, sad enough to reposition herself by wrapping her arms around Brian and resting her chin on his head instead of holding him underneath his armpits. The young man sighed and gently patted White Heart on the head. "No need to worry about me, Blanc, I'll be fine. Trust me," Brian told the Lowean CPU.

"If you insist, just… just don't give me a reason to worry."

"Alright then, I'll try. Oh, you may want to pick up speed, the others are ahead of us."

"What? They are?" White Heart looked ahead of her and saw the rest of the large group ahead of them, most had already reached R-18 Island. "Ah crap, you're right. we better hurry up, don't want that damn tsundere chewing us up over it."

Brian chuckled and nodded. "Got that right, she can be a bitch sometimes whenever something happens and she doesn't like it." White Heart laughed out loud as she continued to carry Brian as they neared the island, ready to make the most of their day there.

* * *

"So then, this is the entrance to the beach, eh?" Angel asked, his arms crossed and a disinterested expression on his face. "Don't look like much to me."

"From what I heard the way people get in is… rather discriminative," Brian informed the young sadist. "Hopefully that isn't the case now."

The two young men were standing by the entrance to the beach of R-18 Island, the area around them was covered in brown walls and a shiny brown floor, both were waxed, there was a large, wooden table near them with some machinery attached to it along with a security light next to it all. Ahead of them leading towards the beach was a security gateway with a computer attached. To Brian and Angel it felt like something akin to an airport of sorts, except outside there was a beach. Brian and Angel were in their swimming gear, which consisted of a pair of swimming trunks, leaving their upper bodies bare and exposed for all to see, they had nothing to hide although many would be a bit frightened of Brian's right arm due to it being made of Share Energy. The two were waiting for the rest of the group to come out of the changing rooms, both of them were rather excited to see what the girls would be wearing, none more so than Angel.

"They're sure taking their time," Angel complained, he leaned up against the wall and looked over at the entrance to the changing rooms.

"I think it's a girl thing, no matter which dimension we're in it is always the same: they take their time," Brian explained to his friend. "Just keep your wits about you and save all of your pent-up energy for the beach."

"Easy for you to say, you barely have any energy, well, 'normal' energy anyway. All you do is read books, play games and lay about doing nothing."

"Not all the time, lately I've been doing some quests with Blanc, Rom and Ram up in Lowee, that's kept my blood pumping for the last week. Although, I'd say you've been doing nothing much of late anyway, for all I know you have been as lazy as usual."

Angel stared at Brian for a moment before breaking into an almost quiet chuckle. "Heh, you've changed, you know that? You're not the same Brian I once knew, guess that flat goddess has been working on your mind or something."

The Ancient threw a glaring expression at the young sadist for a short moment before sighing. "Yeah, guess so. Although, come to think of it, you're a bit different too. You're a lot more… hmm, how to put it… you're a lot more open than you used to be. Hell, you barely showed any emotions at all from what I remembered."

"Is that so? Heh, I don't think I've changed _that_ much."

"Whatever. Hmm, actually it's been a while since we've talked to ourselves like this. When was the last time we could talk like this anyway?"

Angel rubbed his chin thoughtfully as he mulled over Brian's question for a short moment. "I think we haven't spoken like this since our time in Lowee, and that was some time ago, I barely remember it in fact. Do you?"

Brian nodded, although his expression was mixed between agreement and uncertainty, yet Angel decided not to dwell thinking about it. "Yeah, kind of anyway. I remember some of it, although some parts are just fuzzy."

"Hmm, seems like you're having memory problems again. Can't imagine what you'll end up like in a couple of decades, you're memory would be utterly shit, you'd probably forget your own name." Angel chuckled away afterwards while Brian's mood darkened and his gaze met the floor, his fingers twitching.

"Yeah, probably," Brian said quietly, which did not go unnoticed by Angel, but before he could say anything about it two figures emerged from the changing rooms. Unfortunately for Angel it was not the girls but the remaining males of the group, most specifically Victor and Hiroshi, the two males were also wearing plain swimming trunks that the staff of R-18 Island had lent to them for the day. Although, Hiroshi had asked for some sort of shirt to cover his upper body, he would not say why due to his promise to keep the dark blue seal on his chest a secret.

"Why did I get dragged into this?" grumbled Hiroshi as he stumbled next to Brian.

"This is what you get when you affiliate with a Goddess," Victor responded. "Besides, Lady Neptune and Lady Vert insisted that you come along with us, that's why I am here too, also Lady Neptune said something about pleasing the readers with fan service or something. Although, I would have preferred to be back at the Planeptune Basilicom, honing my skills as a mage."

"Ah, so it's all because of fourth wall breaking is it? Makes sense," Angel said, nodding his head as he agreed with his own idea.

"Still, I'd rather prefer to be back home or attending my part-time job, I've got to pay rents next week," Hiroshi continued to grumble.

"Quit your complaining already, Hiroshi," a womanly voice called out. "You could have just refused to come you know."

The voice belonged to Black Heart, she emerged from the changing rooms along with Purple Heart, the two goddesses were wearing an interesting set of bikinis, so the guys thought anyway. A purple and white set for the Planeptune Goddess and a white and light red striped set for the Lastation Goddess, the bikinis appeared a little tight around the chest for Purple Heart while Black Heart attempted to spread the fabric outwards around her rear a few times. "Tch, I think mine is a little tight around the… er, yeah," complained Black Heart.

"Hmm, it'll do for the day I suppose so don't worry about it, besides, I'm putting up with the tightness it's causing around my chest," Purple Heart reassuringly told her fellow CPU. The two goddess looked at the young men in front of them to see Hiroshi trying – and failing – to avert his eyes, Brian had a raised eyebrow while Victor did not seem to care about their presence, Angel, on the other hand, had blood running out of his nostrils as he stared at the two CPUs. The CPU of Lastation glared at the young sadist viciously, although it did not do much to avert his or Hiroshi's gaze. Purple Heart, on the other hand, grinned mischievously when she met eye contact with Brian, she approached him and gave the young man a seductive look.

"Well, how do I look, Brian?" Purple Heart asked him, grinning as she did so.

Brian was caught off guard at first, he stuttered for a moment before answering the question. "W-Well, um, you look… nice."

Purple Heart stared at the young man and frowned. "Seriously? That's all you can say? Nice?"

"S-Sorry, was just caught off guard there."

"Well, if that's the case, what do you actually think about this look, hmm? Give me your honest opinion, Brian~" Once more the Planeptunian CPU smiled seductively at the young man, causing him to blush slightly.

"Um… well, you certainly look attractive." Brian scratched the back of his head as he answered Purple Heart's question, he did his best to avoid looking at the tight bikini top that did not do a good job at hiding some of the skin of her breasts.

The purple goddess blushed for a moment before breaking out in a smile. "Thanks, Brian, thanks for saying that, means a lot to me."

Before Brian could ask why that was the case the young man was almost tackled to the ground by to familiar CPU Candidates in their HDD forms, the White Sisters – Rom and Ram – were wearing a one-piece swimsuit that matched the colour of their HDD hair. As Brian recovered from the affectionate attack and managed to regain his balance the two Candidates vied for his attention. "Hey, big bro, what do you think of us in our swimsuits?" Ram asked with enthusiasm. "Aren't we just the cutest around? Come on, tell us already!"

Brian chuckled as he rubbed their heads, causing the Candidates to perk up even more. "Yeah, you two are definitely cute, just don't tackle me like that again so you can gain my attention. By the way, where's Blanc?"

"She's taking her time with the swimsuit. You'll like it, big bro, trust me," Ram replied, Rom nodded to back up her twin sister's claim.

"Lolicon," Black Heart said with a frown in the distance.

"Tsundere cosplayer," Brian retorted, causing the haughty CPU to freak out.

Hiroshi looked at with a confused expression, it was the first time he had heard about the Lastation CPU's cosplaying hobby. "Is that true, Noire? Are you a cosplayer?"

"Wh-Wh-What?! Of c-c-course not! That would be ridiculous, Hiroshi. A-Anyway, why do you have a shirt on, unlike the other guys?"

The light blue eyed Lastation citizen raised an eyebrow and smirked mischievously. "Oooo, interested in seeing some skin are you?"

This only made Black Heart even more embarrassed, shocked and, in general, act more freaked out than before. "Wh-What the hell is wrong with you, Hiroshi?! Pervert! Grrrr, why does everyone around here pick on me?!"

Into this chaos came IF, Compa, Black Sister and Purple Sister, the four of them bore witness to Black Heart's outburst. Shaking her head the Guild agent walked over to Victor and stood next to him. "Um, h-h-hello, Victor," IF greeted the Wind Mage nervously.

Victor was not any better than IF was, in fact some would say that he was a complete nervous wreak around the brunette. "H-H-H-H-Hello th-there, IF. Y-Y-You look… er, y-you look fantastic."

IF blushed madly while trying to contain her composure. The Guild agent was wearing a dark blue and black bikini along with very short denim shorts which appeared to be unzipped, giving the Wind Mage a small view of her bikini bottom. As the two attempted – and failed – to keep their cool around each other Compa entered the chaotic mix, the nurse-in-training was wearing a white bikini with black dots and black bows, a set of pink, yellow and white flower bracelets were around her wrists. Compa looked over at IF and Victor to see the two lovebirds being nervous around each other, the nurse merely smiled and chuckled at the sight. Meanwhile, Purple Sister and Black Sister were observing everything around them, watching the subtle chaotic nature of their sisters and friends.

The Candidate of Planeptune was wearing a simple white bikini while her counterpart, the Candidate of Lastation, wore a black bikini with white dots. Not long afterwards Green Heart, Iris Heart, Yellow Heart and White Heart emerged from the changing rooms. The Leanboxic CPU was wearing a green bikini bottom with cloth dangling over one side while her bikini top consisted of nothing more than seashells connected together by thick string. Iris Heart was just as open with her style, her bikini was of a dark purple and crimson colour, the bikini itself was smaller than intended and the sadistic goddess's breasts bulged around the swimsuit's top, she gave Angel a seductive look as she made her way over to him, the young man continued to have his nosebleed without embarrassment. However, if Angel though Iris Heart was a complete beauty then he was in for a shock when Yellow Heart ran up to him, the yellow goddess was wearing a bright yellow bikini that was barely able to contain her massive breasts, the perky yellow haired CPU got various different looks from Green Heart whenever Yellow Heart's breasts would wobble around.

"Hey, Angie, how do I look? How do I look?" Yellow Heart asked Angel in her usual excited tone.

The young man wiped the blood away from his nose and gave her a thumbs up. "I think you look spectacular, Peashy, really cute."

"Really? Yahoo!"

Iris Heart smiled and looked at Angel while Yellow Heart began a perky conversation with Purple Heart. "Did you really mean that?" Iris asked him.

Angel nodded. "Yep, she's definitely a beauty. Pity she's actually a child though."

"Hmm? Were you planning on doing something to her?"

"What? No, I'm not that kinda guy." He then looked over at Brian to see the Ancient surrounded by the White Sisters, both trying to gain is overall attention. "Although, I think Brian's gonna have that problem if he doesn't do something about those two."

"He'll be fine, Blanny will set them straight. Look, she's already doing that."

True enough White Heart had knocked her younger sisters on the head with her fists, sending them into an apologetic state. "Sorry about those two again, Brian, they've been really excited about this all day. A-A-Anyway, er, h-how do l-look?" White Heart stammered as she spoke, her hands were behind her back and a tinge of red was in her cheeks. She was wearing a dark blue and white striped bikini with a frilly cloth running along the waistband of the bikini bottom.

Brian blushed at the sight before breaking out in a smile. "I th-think you look outstanding, I like it, I really do, Blanc."

The Lowean CPU's heart fluttered, it was not everyday that she got that sort of remark out of Brian, heck, she never got a comment like it before out of him or anyone else from her long life. It made her happy to know that. "Thanks, Brian. That's the first time you made a comment like that before towards me, you know."

"R-Really? Um, sorry."

White Heart laughed as she knocked Brian on the head. "Relax, would you? It's all fine, and besides, um… y-y-you l-look pretty g-great as well. A-Anyway, I'd like it if that damn anonymous person would show up already."

"Is that so? Just be careful for what you wish for next time," a voice said from out of the shadows. Most of the group recognised the voice due to the Welsh accent, it was Wraith and, to no ones surprise, the God of Time was not wearing any swimsuits, in fact he was still wearing his usual attire. "Nice to see that you all decided to show up, then again, I doubt any of you would have stayed behind back at your chosen homes."

"Why are we all here, Wraith?" Victor asked, his suspicions towards Wraith had only grown and now the Wind Mage distrusted the strange man.

"Why, we're all here to have some good time, I'm sure that everyone needs some time to relax and just have a good time. Don't you agree?"

"But why you of all people?"

"Because I need a short holiday as well, haven't had one for centuries. The last time I took a holiday I ended up causing a galactic war between two empires, that was as sordid affair." That last comment died the embers of the conversation away, not that anyone would have wanted to continue it anyway. It was time for the fun part of the day to begin.

Green Heart was the first to enter the beach resort of R-18 Island, the system that had been originally implemented before the Eden Crisis was still in effect from what White Heart could see, the CPU of Leanbox grinned smugly at her Lowean counterpart as she walked through the security gateway. Purple Heart, Black Heart and Hiroshi were the next three to pass the security check, next up was Iris Heart, Angel and Yellow Heart, the young sadomasochistic man looked back at Brian and gave him the thumbs up. Then came IF, Compa and Victor, while the nurse-in-training and the Wind Mage got in fine the Guild agent was refused entry due to her lack of 'assets', as she growled in annoyance with the security computer screen – who kept asking if IF was of an appropriate age – White Heart looked at Brian and edged him to have a go after Purple Sister walked through the gateway.

"You go first, I'll try to get IF away from the damn security thing," the Lowean CPU instructed the Ancient.

Brian nodded and approached the gateway where the security screen – which appeared out of nowhere – asked him if he was of a proper age to gain entry. "Of course I am you discriminative machine," Brian mumbled as he pressed yes, much to his shock he was refused entry.

"Are you sure you are of a proper age?" the woman on the screen asked him.

"Of course I am!" Brian replied as he pressed yes again and again.

"With those looks?" the security woman asked with a frown.

This time Brian had had enough, his eyes flared with Share Energy as did his body, the young man then raised his right fist and brought it down, destroying the visually created screens. As the siren went off Brian leapt towards it and tore it off, smashing it in a fit of absolute rage. It took both White Heart and IF some effort to restrain him before the young man regained his senses and calmed down. With a victorious expression Brian passed through the gateway unhindered along with the rest of the group, Green Heart raised an eyebrow and gave off a concerned expression.

"Well, I must say that you do take after Blanc, although you went more overboard than she did the last time we were here," the Leanboxic CPU said, her tone was filled with concern.

White Heart grinned and lock her right arm with Brian's left. "Heh, that's my man," she said smugly as they walked past Green Heart.

Wraith shook his head and sighed. "Whatever. At any rate we're all here in one piece and that's good enough for me. Now, if you excuse me I have somewhere to be, ta ta."

Wraith disappeared within an instant, leaving the large group by themselves on the beach, and what a sight it was. A vast, open area of sand and short waves was spread across the entire island before them, a gentle and cool breeze blew into them from the south and the amount of people around the area was smaller than most had imagined. The last time the CPUs were at R-18 Island – not all of them were on the island however – there were a lot more people back then than there was at that moment. However, the group did not mind this, in fact this was something that they rather enjoyed.

"Hey, Brian, let's go over there and make a sandcastle," White Heart said to the young man, her face was lit up with excitement. "I've always wanted to make one on a beach."

Brian looked at White Heart and chuckled in amusement. "Funny, even in HDD form you can be a bit childish at times."

The Lowean CPU glared at the Ancient and once more knocked him on the head, she had grown accustomed to doing that during their time in Lowee for the last week. "And you're still an ass at the best of times. Whatever, let's just go make one already." White Heart grabbed the young man's glowing, right hand and ran towards the water in a quick pace.

"Hold on, we're coming too!" Rom and Ram exclaimed as they ran after White Heart and Brian to the shoreline.

Green Heart chuckled as she watched the twins run after their older sister and 'older brother', the CPU of Leanbox smiled away before walking off towards some sunshades near a small, open cafés which was worked by an oddly coloured girl with green hair. Black Heart, Black Sister and Hiroshi followed her while Angel, Iris Heart and Yellow Heart went to the shoreline to have a swim, the folk from Planeptune headed off in separate directions. Purple Heart and Purple Sister went after Angel and his group while IF, Compa and Victor went to the sunshades. They all decided to have a good time and forget their worries, and indeed they did, at least nearly all of them. This all went on for half an hour.

* * *

The CPUs of Lastation were laying on white lounges with a large umbrella covering them, Black Heart was laying on her back with her arms under her head, her legs were crossed and a carefree expression was across her face. Black Sister was doing the same thing on a lounge next to her older sister, she sighed with relief and smiled away. "Ah, this is great," the Candidate said, basking in the bright sunlight.

"You got that right, Uni," Black Heart told her. "I can do this all day."

"You two seem to be having fun," Green Heart said, her body was wet from the sea due to a swimming session, a towel was wrapped around her neck. "How do you feel, Hiroshi?"

The young man was sitting on a chair, basking in the sunlight along with the tsundere goddess and was just having a good time. "Yeah, I'm actually having fun with all this," Hiroshi replied honestly, causing Black Heart to chuckle in amusement.

"See? Aren't you glad that Neptune and Vert insisted that you come along with us now?" Black Heart asked Hiroshi, grinning away like a happy child.

"I guess so. Thanks, Lady Green Heart."

The CPU of Leanbox chuckled as she walked past the Lastation citizen. "Please, just call me Vert like you call Noire by her name."

"If you insist. Thanks a lot, Vert, I am having fun out here."

The green haired CPU smiled as she stopped next to the young man, she then bent down and began to whisper into his left ear. "Good luck with Noire, she's a bit of a loner so don't be so hard on her." She then resumed her walk and retired to a nearby lounge.

Black Heart frowned at Hiroshi, she was suspicious about what the young man and Green Heart were just talking about. "What were you two talking about? Tell me."

"Oh, nothing, I was just admiring your swimsuit is all," Hiroshi replied, a grin formed on his face.

The Lastation CPU's face turned bright red and she started to stammer in her tsundere way. "Wh-Wh-What?! The hell, Hiroshi?! Wh-Why would you say that to me?!"

Hiroshi chuckled as he stood up and walked next to Black Heart. "Well, whatever, although seriously: I do think you look good in that swimsuit, Noire."

Black Heart blushed madly and glanced away, she failed to see the small tinge of red in the young man's face. "Th-Th-Thanks, Hiroshi."

Black Sister looked at the two of them and smiled, the Candidate found it amusing to see her older sister in such a situation with another person, a young man of all people. "Having fun over there, Noire?"

Black Heart blushed again lost her composure. "U-U-Uni! Wh-Wh-What was that for?!"

The tsundere Candidate laughed and laid back on the lounge while Black Heart attempted to regain her composure, Hiroshi chuckled and patted the long, silver haired CPU's head gently. "Don't worry about it, Noire, I'll make it up to you. I'm heading over to that cafés over there, did you need anything?"

"U-Um, yeah, how about some lemonade for me. What about you, Uni?"

"Same for me. Thanks, Hiroshi."

Hiroshi nodded and smiled at the two tsundere sisters. "No problem, I'll be back with them soon."

As the Lastation citizen walked off Black Heart watched him for a short moment before closing her eyes and sighing. "What an idiot," she mumbled to herself quietly. "Saying things like that without remorse. Well, at least he was honest… I suppose."

Hiroshi walked up to the café stand and peered at the various choices for sale, there was not a lot on the list plus there did not appear to be many people around, in fact Hiroshi noted that he was the only person at the stand. The person who would normal serve people at the stand was searching through a fridge, she seemed to be mumbling to herself about something, or rather someone. To Hiroshi's surprise the way that the person was describing it the figure they were mumbling about reminded him of the strange, armoured man who spoke another language. Eventually Hiroshi decided to interrupt her mumbling. "Um, hey there," he said, catching the figure off guard.

Just as Hiroshi had suspected the person at the stand was a woman, a young girl it seemed. She had, interestingly, grey skin, dark purple eyes and green hair, she wore a black bikini, a green belt and a dark coloured purple top with a heart logo on it, the heart was compromised of two different colours: red and yellow. She looked at the young man and frowned as she rubbed her gut, something felt off about the whole situation. Hiroshi then felt a sting of pain as his dark blue mark began to glow brightly as if it was reacting to something, he rubbed his chest as the pain went away. To his surprise the young girl in front of him was looking rather shocked.

"Um, hey, you don't happen to have something on your chest, do you?" she asked, she sounded nervous about something.

"N-No, course I don't," Hiroshi replied quickly. "What about you?"

"No, I don't." The green haired girl gazed around them quickly before sighing. "Well, I don't think _he_ is going to mind it if we tell each other about it."

"I guess not. So you do have that mark?"

The girl nodded. "Yep, sure do. Some crazy guy with a daemonic red eye and three scars running down his face came up to me and started talking in some funny language before putting this on me." She then lifted up her top slightly to reveal a dark blue seal on her belly, it looked exactly like the one on Hiroshi's chest.

"Looks like the same as mine," the young man commented as he lifted his shirt up, letting the stand tender see the mark for a moment. "Did the armoured man ever tell you who he is?"

She shook her head and a grouchy look appeared. "Would've been nice if he actually told me his name instead of just smacking me out and planting a damn mark on me. Bastard." The grey skinned girl then noticed that some tourists were starting to come over. "Ah dammit, we'll have to pick this up another time. Anyway, what do you want?"

"Er, three lemonades please."

The girl nodded and grabbed three cans of lemonade out of the fridge. "There, that'll be fifty credits."

"Fifty? Isn't that a bit expensive for three lemonades?"

"Hey, I don't make the rules here, just pay up already."

"Fine, fine." Hiroshi pulled out his wallet and handed over fifty credits to the green haired woman, she took the money and stored it in a metal box next to her. "Thanks for the business. Oh, and if you see that jerk of a guy let me know."

"Alright then. Oh, by the way, my name's Hiroshi. What's yours?"

"Me? I'm Linda. Enjoy your time."

Hiroshi nodded and walked away with the three cans of lemonade in his hands, he was surprised to see someone else with the same kind of mark on their body, he thought he was only one. _I guess I'm relieved to know that I'm not the only one, but it still worries me. What is going on? Why is this armoured guy going around and marking people? It doesn't make any sense at all._ _Well, at least I'm not the only one, but why Linda of all people? She doesn't look like much to me, then again, I'm not like the CPUs and the Shadow Walker either._ Hiroshi thought to himself as he approached the Lastation Goddesses with their cold drinks.

* * *

 _Can't breathe, can't breathe! Is this how I'm going to die? Well, at least this way I can die in the things I love most: tits._ Angel thought, his mind swirled around seeing stars.

For some untold reason Iris Heart was using Angel as a surfboard instead of getting an actual one, she was laying on the young sadist, her large breasts engulfed his face while she attempted to paddle. Iris had never even considered surfing before until now, for some strange reason – at least strange for the others – she preferred to use Angel instead of paying for an actual surfboard, to her amusement the young man was more than willing to lend himself to her. So as the waves started to increase in size and speed the sadistic goddess surfed the waves with Angel as her noble steed, surprisingly the young man managed to become as stiff as a plank of thick wood which made it easier for Iris Heart to use him.

As the wave made a beeline to the shore Iris Heart stood up and planted her feet on Angel's chest and gut, causing the young man to groan with mixed feelings, although he knew he had been through worse. Iris looked down at his and smiled. "Don't move, Angie," she instructed him.

"Like I'm able to do that anyway," Angel retorted back, causing the goddess standing on him to move her left foot and stomp on his crotch, he clenched his teeth and did not utter a single sound.

"That's a good boy~"

Suddenly Iris lost her footing due to the speed of the wave and fell off into the water, this left Angel by himself facing against the oncoming wave, which sent him hurdling towards the shoreline. The wave washed him ashore, sand piled into his mouth as he crashed into something large made out of sand. The young sadist got onto his knees, spat out the sand in his mouth and wiped his eyes clean, before him he saw something that he thought only Brian had to deal with. Angel was staring at the face of an overly angry White Heart, her right fist was clenched and Angel swore that she would explode at any moment. Sitting next to her was Brian, he had an uncaring look on his face as he stared at Angel.

"Um, what did I crash into?" Angel asked, uncaring about the situation he had found himself in.

"You smashed into our frigging sandcastle, that's what!" White Heart yelled, she was ready to kill Angel at any given moment. "You frigging bastard! It took me and Brian half an hour to make and you just had to waltz in and destroy it. You little… GRRRRAAAHH!"

Brian leapt forward and threw his arms around White Heart's waist, preventing the CPU from attacking the young sadist, much to her annoyance. The Lowean goddess flailed her arms and legs around, hitting Brian on the head several times and almost knocking him unconscious while Angel made his escape, nodding a 'thank you' to the Ancient. Once Angel got away White Heart calmed down, she sat on Brian's lap and grumbled away, the back of her head facing Brian's face. "Why did you stop me, Brian?" the Lowean CPU asked, her gaze directed towards the remains of the sandcastle.

"Why? Because it wasn't worth it, Blanc," Brian replied, keeping his arms around White Heart's waist. "It was only a sandcastle, we can make another you know."

"Yeah, I get that, but it took us half an hour to make it, now it feels like a complete waist of time. That's what it sounds like you're saying."

Brian sighed and nuzzled his face against White Heart, causing her to blush and stammer when speaking. "Th-The hell, Brian?! D-Don't do that without telling me first, damn ass."

"How sweet of you to keep calling me that, you know I never get offended by that. Besides, I'm only trying to get a reaction out of you."

"Is that so?" White Heart asked, a mischievous grin formed on her face, she then twisted around and swiftly pressed her lips against Brian for a few seconds, when their heads parted the Ancient appeared to have been caught off guard due to the surprised look on his face. "Now its my turn to get a reaction out of you, Bri-Bri."

"I told you not to call me that," Brian pouted and glanced away.

The Lowean CPU giggled, gently grabbed his chin, moved his head around to face her and moved in for another kiss. White Heart's arms snaked around Brian's neck while his arms moved up her back, the soft touch of her skin sent a peculiar shocks up his spine, the young man found it erotic, and he liked it. As they both continued their kissing session the young man realised something, it was as if there was something odd about the Lowean CPU kissing him. She seemed more passionate, it felt as if there was some burning desire going on within her, as if she wanted something more from him. _Well, whatever it is I'm sure I can comply with it._ Brian thought as started to become a little more forceful with White Heart, he stuck his tongue into her mouth were it was met with her own, as their tongues intertwined the young man could feel the CPU start to rub against him. Suddenly Brian was thrown to the ground with White Heart sitting in top of him, a devious grin formed on her face as she looked down at him.

"How 'bout we take this up a notch?" White Heart suggested as she leaned down towards Brian's face, that was until she stopped and looked over at her left. In the bushes she saw Rom and Ram watching them, they appeared to be rather into what Brian and Whit Heart were doing, at any rate the Lowean CPU was not happy. "The hell are you two doing?!"

"Why'd you stop?" Ram complained. "I was getting into that."

Rom nodded, agreeing with what her twin sister had said. Their older sister, however, was not amused, she got off Brian and started growling at her sisters. "Dammit you two! You just had to ruin the bloody moment!"

Rom and Ram looked at each other, giggled and ran away down the beach, White Heart would have gone after them if it had not been for Brian, the young man had gotten onto his feet and grabbed the Lowean CPU by the shoulder. "Let them go, Blanc, they're just children. Well, physically anyway," the Ancient told her.

"Yeah, I know, I just don't want them getting any weird ideas because of us, it's already becoming a problem with how affectionate they've become towards you," White Heart explained as she calmed down and looked at Brian. "Anyway, er, s-s-sorry about before, I-I went a bit overboard with that."

Brian chuckled and patted the Lowean CPU on the head. "Don't worry about that, I didn't expect to see you having a dominant side to you." As the two chuckled away Brian looked out to the sea and sighed, the strange feeling of home was creeping into him again. Then something happened, something neither he nor White Heart were expecting to happen: he started to sing.

"Bleddyn yn ddyn tal a theg,  
ei darian yn gryf, a'i gleddyf yn newynog,  
cododd o'r mynyddoedd i ryfela  
i goncro yr Hen Fyd gyda dur a gwaed.

Roedd ei wallt choched a oedd ei lygaid yn tyllu'r,  
grim bob amser yn ei fynegiant,  
ei fod yn ddoeth mewn llên a strategaethau  
eto ffyrnig mewn brwydr ac yn greulon i'r euog.

Cafodd ei enwi Cysgodol Cerddwr a milwyr i ryfel,  
marwolaeth a dinistr a ddilynir yn ei sgil,  
harneisio Bleddyn grym y ynni llachar,  
byddai ei lygaid fflêr a byddai ei gorff llewyrcha'i.

Mae dinas Sheoth sefydlwyd gan Bleddyn bonheddig,  
lle llenwi â hud a chelf wahanol i unrhyw beth cyn neu ar ôl,  
ei strydoedd llenwi gyda aur a thlysau,  
erioed yn hapus y bobl oedd yn byw o fewn ei muriau.

Daeth Bleddyn Ymerawdwr diamheuol o fod yn Hen Fyd,  
pob dyn a dynes atebodd iddo,  
cafodd ei glod fel sanctaidd a sanctaidd yn y gyfraith,  
ef oedd y gyfraith sanctaidd y tir.

difrodwyd y gogledd yn ystod y flwyddyn saith o'r Hynafol Cyfnod,  
fwystfilod o'r Mesolithig Cyfnod lladd a llosgi i gyd yn eu llwybr,  
am bum mlynedd Rhyfel Ffenics raged gyda naill ochr na'r llall rhoi'r gorau iddi,  
Ymerawdwr Bleddyn a ddaeth i ben trwy selio'r Brenin Ffenics i ffwrdd.

Grymus ymestyn Bleddyn ei rym ar draws Môr Mawr,  
pobl Glimmermist Ynys yn ymostwng i mewn i gyflwyno,  
yr Ymerawdwr Bleddyn oedd arglwydd y byd,  
oedd ganddo gryfder ffenics a doethineb duw.

Dysgodd y Ymerawdwr hollalluog y ffyrdd o hud dimensiwn,  
daeth yn mage mwyaf y byd erioed yn gwybod,  
mor fawr oedd ei nerth a sefydlodd y Coleg dewiniaidbawb  
a fynychodd ddaeth yn feistri ar y ffordd hudol.

Ond yn ystod y flwyddyn ar hugain o Oes Hynafol iddo dyfu aflonydd,  
Tyfodd ei dymer a daeth ei galon oer a maleisus,  
Daeth Bleddyn anghymdeithasol a gadawodd bywyd cyhoeddus  
ac eto byth gorffwys a'i syllu ar yr awyr drwy'r amser.

pasio Ymerawdwr Bleddyn y cleddyf Gehaburn i'w fab Einion,  
y cleddyf melltigedig ei dyfarnu i gael ei basio o plentyn hynaf i'r plentyn hynaf,  
Gelwir Bleddyn Einion Ymerawdwr yr Hynafwyr ac yn fuan diflannu,  
ni welwyd gan lygaid marwol byth eto yn Oes Hynafol.

Dywedir y bydd Belddyn dychwelyd pan yr awyr bwrw glaw tân,  
pan fydd y llu ysol y byd chythraul ddyfod allan ac ymladd,  
bydd y byd yn cael eu diwallu gyda dychweliad y dwyfol gyntaf yn gnawd,  
pan fydd y tri dimensiwn uno, pan fydd y cyntaf a'r olaf fydd yn brwydro,  
pan y mae diwedd pob peth yn dod o'r diwedd, pan fydd y Diwedd Amseroedd yn dod."

White Heart stood still, amazed at what came out of Brian's mouth. "Wow, that was… beautiful. What were you singing about? And what language was that anyway?"

Brian exited his stupor and shook his head to recover himself. "Wh-What? I'm not sure what happened there, I feel light headed. Did I just sing? Whoa. I'm not sure what I just sang about."

"It was the Lay of Bleddyn, and you sang in the Hynafol Tafod – the Ancient Tongue," a voice called out, Brian and White Hear turned around to see Wraith sitting on a fallen tree. "Every Ancient knows it, whether they have heard of it or not. Since you do not know the translation I'll tell you.

Bleddyn was a man tall and fair,  
his shield was strong and his sword hungered,  
he rose from the mountains to wage war  
to conquer the Old World with steel and blood.

His hair was brown and his eyes were piercing,  
grim always was his expression,  
he was wise in lore and strategies  
yet savage in battle and cruel to the guilty.

He was named Shadow walker and led soldiers to war,  
death and destruction followed in his wake,  
Bleddyn harnessed the power of the bright energy,  
his eyes would flare and his body would glow.

The city of Sheoth was founded by noble Bleddyn,  
a place filled with magic and art unlike anything before or after,  
its streets filled with gold and jewels,  
ever happy were the people who lived within its walls.

Bleddyn became the undisputed Emperor of he Old World,  
every man and woman answered to him,  
he was acclaimed as sacred and sacred was the law,  
he was the sacred law of the land.

The north was ravaged during the year seven of the Ancient Era,  
beasts from the Merithic Era killed and burned all in their path,  
for five years the Phoenix War raged with neither side giving up,  
Emperor Bleddyn ended it by sealing the Phoenix King away.

Powerful Bleddyn extended his power across the Great Sea,  
the people of Glimmermist Isle were humbled into submission,  
the Emperor Bleddyn was lord of the world,  
he had the strength of a phoenix and the wisdom of a god.

The almighty Emperor learned the ways of dimension magic,  
he became the greatest mage the world ever knew,  
so great was his power that he founded the Mages College  
all those who attended became masters of the magical way.

But during the year twenty of the Ancient Era he grew restless,  
his temper grew and his heart became cold and malevolent,  
Bleddyn became unsociable and withdrew from public life  
yet he never rested and his stared at the sky all the time.

Emperor Bleddyn passed the sword Gehaburn to his son Einion,  
the cursed sword was decreed to be passed from eldest child to eldest child,  
Bleddyn called Einion Emperor of the Ancients and soon disappeared,  
never to be seen by mortal eyes ever again in the Ancient Era.

It is said Belddyn will return when the sky rains fire,  
when the devouring hordes of the daemonic world come forth and fight,  
the world shall be met with the return of the first divine made flesh,  
when the three dimensions merge, when the first and the last shall do battle,  
when the end of all things come at last, when the End times shall come."

"What a strange tale," White Heart said, to which Wraith responded with a shrug.

"Belddyn… isn't he my ancestor?" Brian asked.

Wraith nodded. "He sure is. He was the first of just about everything, what a prideful bastard."

"Did you know him?"

Wraith shrugged. "Sort of, he mistook me for a god, that's why I was known as the God of Time. Anyway, I'm leaving now, have a good day you two lovebirds." He then got off the fallen tree and winked at them as he began to walk away.

As White Heart blushed uncontrollably Brian called out to the God of Time. "Hey, Wraith, keep yourself safe."

The thousand year old man stopped and looked around, his eyes flared more brightly than before. "I don't need to look out for myself, after all, you can't kill what's already dead."

With that the day went on peacefully, the CPUs and friends swam and drank their way through the day, Brian and White Heart even managed to create another sandcastle with thick walls and round towers. Yet the young man could not get over the fact that Wraith was an undead God of Time, or that deep down he knew about the Ancient Tongue. He looked over at White Heart and smiled, the young man could tell that things were starting to change, but from what he had experienced it seemed as if it was for the better. It felt like something great was going to happen.

* * *

 **A/N: Huzzah! A beach chapter, about frigging time! Fan service and man service for all! Like how I included Linda in this chapter? She needed some attention, what a poor underling she is. And now things between Brian and Blanc are starting to spice up, is this the start of a 'steamy' chapter coming along at some point in the near future? You'll just have to find out later.**

 **Did it surprise you readers that Wraith is actually one of the undead? Probably not. Oh, and I was indeed the one to create the Lay of Bleddyn, took me a long time to come up with that. It does sound kinda Welsh but not completely Welsh. Regardless, the next chapter will be out by next week – hopefully, don't make me promise it, I've also got work to do – so until then have a good day readers and may a bird never poop on your head.**


	57. Love in the Wind

**Chapter 56: Love in the Wind**

Everything seemed quiet in the southern regions of Viruta Forest, a person would have walked through the woodland and not notice anything out of place, that would be the case until they reached the southern most part of the forest. There, among the trees and bushes with the mountain ranges climbing up in the distance, there was a commotion occurring within a wide, open space. Gusts of wind blew swiftly through the trees and bushes, leaves dispersed across the ground as the heavy wind decided to calm down. In the centre of the grassy, open area were two figures, a young man and a young woman, the man was standing still next to a tree while the woman was bent over, her hands were on her knees and she was panting for breath.

The young man looked at her and sighed. "Come on, is that all you got, IF?"

IF looked up at the young man frowned at him. "Easy for you to say, Victor, you spent over four years learning this and you're an expert."

"Actually I got the hang of wind magic within a year and then mastered it the year after that, sorry to burst your bubble there."

IF looked stunned for a moment before falling to the ground, exhausted and worn out. "Who the hell made up this magic anyway?" IF asked as she collapsed fully onto the ground.

Victor shrugged "Who can say. Maybe the Ancients, maybe the first CPU, maybe someone or something else entirely. I never questioned it so it matters not to me."

"Does anything matter to you nowadays?" IF questioned the wind mage as he sat down next to the Guild agent.

"Of course: my friends, including you."

"Right… friends, that's it." IF mumbled to herself and glanced away from Victor, causing the wind mage to looked quizzically at her.

"Hmm? What's wrong with you? If it's the training that's getting to you we can take the rest of the day off if you want."

IF sighed and continued to look away from Victor. "No, that's not it."

"Then what is it?" The wind mage failed to get a reply after that.

Victor was greatly confused about IF's behaviour, especially over the last few days since their return to Planeptune from R-18 Island, ever since then the Guild agent had been acting ever more nervously around the wind mage. Sometimes she would even go out of her way to avoid him at times, not even IF's best friend, Compa, was able to get an answer out of her. Victor was not blind to it though, he knew that there was something going on in IF's head, the problem was he had no idea how to solve it. Surprisingly to him the Guild agent had recovered slightly enough to ask for more lessons on how to use wind magic, although it had not been the most productive lesson that they had been through.

They stayed silent for a good majority of ten minutes while IF regained some of her strength, Victor passed the time by counting the number of clouds he spotted in the sky above, finally he saw IF got off the ground and back onto her feet. "Hey, is it okay if I keep training, Victor?" IF asked him.

"Sure thing, I'll just be taking a rest by that tree over there."

IF stood in the centre of the field, her legs were spread apart slightly and her right arm was raised in front of her with the palm facing a nearby tree, she was focusing all of her energy into the right palm of her hand. "Alright, just focus… focus," she whispered to herself, she could feel the energy building up in her hand as she focused with all her might.

Victor paid close attention to the brunette as he sat down at the base a tree, he raised one knee and put an arm over as he gazed at IF, he smiled as he watched her summon up a gust of wind that blew the leaves and branches off a tree directly in front of her, there were even a few chunks missing from the tree. IF panted for air as she looked over at Victor, a smile formed across her face. "Well, how did I go?" she asked him.

"Not bad, but could be better," was the reply. "Focus harder, if you're having trouble you should think about what motivates you, appeal to your emotions and you shall succeed."

"Alright, I'll try."

"No. Only do, there is no try. I leaned that a long time ago."

IF looked at Victor questioningly before shrugging. "Fine then. Appeal to my emotions… how do I do that?"

"Just think about what motivates you more than anything, visualise what means most to you, just think about what would happen if you lost all that you hold dear and you might just succeed. Now, visualise. Although, if that fails to work then clear your mind of all thoughts, that should work as well. Your choice."

IF stood still with her arms by her side, her head hang low and her eyes were closed shut, she could feel the soft, cool, late morning breeze blow against her through the densely populated forestation, the Guild agent felt her hair flutter across her face and her coat flickered in the direction of the breeze. She began to think about what meant most to her, about what she held dear to her, about what and who meant everything to her. Within a few minutes of meditating this way IF opened her eyes suddenly, stood into a combat position, raised her right palm towards the direction of the tree in front of her and focused all of her energy into her right palm. With a loud yell she continued to build up a large amount of magical energy into her right hand, Victor straightened his back and looked on with wonder, the wind mage could see the wind magic starting to take a visual – possibly even physical – form.

It was time for the attack. IF drew her right arm back before launching it forward with a yell, the wind magic that had been building up in her right hand was sent forth into the tree in front of the Guild agent with swift speed. The sound that emitted from it was blaring while the breeze that flowed from it was utterly fast, it tore through the tree and smashed it into pieces, shards of tree trunk pierced the grassy ground and other nearby trees, all that was left was the tree trunk base and the roots that were sticking out of the ground. IF stared in wonder at the carnage she had caused, she was amazed yet also disappointed that she did not do any more damage. Victor grinned as he stood up and walked over to IF, he patted her head and smiled at her.

"Well done, IF, you've impressed me," the top hat wearing man said. "I think we might be able to move on to some of the special attacks tomorrow."

"R-Really? You sure about that, Victor?"

"Of course, otherwise I would not have suggested it at all." He then took his hand away from IF's head and started to walk in the opposite direction, he looked back and smiled once more at the Guild agent. "Come on, let's get outta here and get back to Compa's house, she probably wants to know how the session went. Oh, I've got an idea: how about her get her a pizza while we get back?"

IF smirked as she caught up with Victor. "You and pizza, I'll never understand it. It's like you getup; beyond comprehension or reason."

The wind mage raised an eyebrow and softly hit IF on the top of her head with the tip of his cane, he chuckled as she growled at him. "Luckily for you I can stand your attempts to insult me, I am more lenient than others, especially Brian and Angel."

"I get that, but why dress like that in the first place?"

"Because it looks cool. What more is there to tell?"

"I just looks weird is all." IF chuckled as Victor grumbled away to himself afterwards as they made their way north back towards Planeptune, pizza was calling for them, well, mainly for Victor at least.

* * *

"Here you go, sir, one meatlover pizza and one spinach and cheese pizza," the pizza man at the stand in the pizza store, he gave Victor the pizzas in their boxes and bowed politely.

"Thanks, much appreciated," Victor responded with a smile, he clutched the pizza boxes tightly in his arms and left the store, once he closed the glass door behind him he turned to his right to see IF leaning up against the light brown wall of the pizzeria, her arms were crossed and a small smile was on her face.

"Did you get the meatlovers pizza?" the Guild agent asked him.

"Indeed I did," Victor replied. "An afternoon snack with pizza is never complete with out the delicious, meaty pizza."

IF chuckled as the two made their way down the street, the enticing aroma of fresh pizza travelled through their nostrils, Victor was practically drooling at the thought of eating one of his favourite meals. IF giggled at the sight as they walked past several citizens of Planeptune who gave no heed of them, or the alluring scent of pizzas. It had been too long since Victor and IF last had pizza together, the last time they were like this occurred many years ago when the wind mage was still under the care of Histoire while IF had just signed up with the Guild. It was also the first time they met, IF remembered it fondly due to what Victor gave her.

* * *

 _Many years ago in a vibrant yet suspicious city called Planeptune a lone figure walked down the streets, minding her own business as she made her way to the Guild, hoping to apply for a job and keep herself undercover in case she was to get drafted into the army. It was a time of constant, total war. The Console War had been waged for almost two centuries without any signs of stopping, at least that is what it seemed to the public eye, but the reality was rather different. The CPU Candidates had been born a few years back and things were starting to change, the little sisters of the senior CPUs had met during the cover of battle – at least the Candidates of Planeptune and Lastation had – and failing to recognise who's side they were on they began to prosper in a mutual friendship. It was the beginning of the end for the Console War. It seemed likely that peace talks could occur at some point, but that would not happen for several more years, and by then hardly a single battle had been fought – except for a few duals between the CPUs._

 _With the war slowing down the CPUs started to pay more attention to what was occurring around their nations, Planeptune and Lowee especially were having a growing monster problem, the incident with Victor was a prime example of how bad things were getting. Because of this more people were no longer becoming soldiers but rather hunters for the Guilds, even younger folk were steadily becoming more involved with the monster problems by officially joining the Guilds, one such event took place on this particular day. The lonesome figure entered the Planeptune Guild and glanced around her, taking in the size of the building as well as the number of job requests available._

 _The figure was a young woman in her early teens, she had fair skin and was wearing an oversized blue coat, a black top and shorts, her boots were blue and her hair was long and brown, her eyes were green. The teen's hair was getting in the way of her face and she regularly had to brush it aside, only for it to get in her way again. "Stupid hair, I'm going to have get it cut eventually," she mumbled to herself as she made her way to the receptionist at a desk. "Um, excuse me, is it possible for me to get a job here at the Guild as a hunter?"_

" _Sure thing, just fill out this form and you can take nay job you feel like," the cheery receptionist said in response as she handed the teen a slip of paper and a pen._

" _Thanks." The brunette took the paper and the pen, she stood there and filled the form out and eventually signed it with her signature at the bottom. She gave it back to the receptionist who placed it in a folder and smiled at the new Guild agent._

" _Thank you for officially joining the Guild, I hope you manage to stick around. There are several quests that are available on the wall and on the new computer system that we have installed, come back to me or someone other staff member."_

 _The brunette nodded and walked off, she stopped next to a column and gazed at a board on a nearby wall, there were several quests pinned up and ready to be accepted. As she rubbed her chin thoughtfully she accidentally bumped shoulders with another person, the brunette looked over quickly and apologised. "Sorry about that," she apologised._

" _No, it's alright, I should sorry about that," the stranger said in response as he bowed._

 _The stranger was a young man who appeared to also be in his teens, he had chrome coloured hair, orange eyes, an oversized brown trench coat that was buttoned in the middle, his pants were dark coloured and a ruby tipped cane was held in his right hand, overall he seemed like a peculiar person. He did not seem to be a harmful person, in fact he appeared to be more of a fancy rich kid if nothing else. "You rich or something?" the brunette asked him._

 _He shook his head, causing the brunette to raise an eyebrow. "No, never been close in contact with a large amount of wealth in my life," he replied. "Why do you ask? Do I look rich?"_

" _Well yeah, you have a ruby tipped cane after all." She pointed at the object in his right hand and chuckled._

" _Very funny. This is a family heirloom that has been passed down generation to generation, at least, it used to anyway." He glanced away and sighed depressingly, a saddened look was in his eyes. An awkward silence reigned over the two of them for a short moment before it was broken by the young man. "So… er, what's your name?"_

" _Me? Oh, I'm IF, nice to meet you. What's your name?"_

" _Victor, the name's Victor. Er… sorry, I'm not particularly good around people, I just don't know what to say at times." He chuckled as he rubbed the back of his head, IF thought of him to be an awkward yet an interesting person, he seemed to be distant and quiet yet also polite._

 _IF smiled at Victor and chuckled. "Don't worry about it. Hey, are you a member of the Guild?"_

 _Victor nodded. "That I am, signed up as a hunter a few months ago. I'm guessing you must be a recent member, I haven't seen you around here before."_

 _IF nodded. "Yep, just signed up a few minutes ago, was just looking for a quest to do before I bumped into you."_

" _Is that so? Well then, er… w-would you like to, um, g-go on a quest with me? S-S-S-Sorry, I'm not good with this." Victor glanced away and appeared embarrassed as he looked at the floor._

 _The new Guild agent stared at Victor before breaking out into a laugh, the young teen looked at his new acquaintance and stared at her with a confused expression. "Er… did I say something funny?" Victor asked IF._

" _No, no, sorry about that. Well, if you want I can go along with you, it would be nice to accompany someone who has had some experience with doing Guild quests. So, what would you suggest for a first timer?"_

 _Victor turned his gaze back towards the request board and clicked his tongue around in his mouth, he rubbed his chin and began to hum. "Hmm, how about we take this one?" Victor took a piece of paper off the board and handed it over to IF, it read: 'Fernirs overrunning woodlands west of Planeptune, a thousand credits for their extermination'. "Well, what do you think about that?"_

" _Sure, we can do that," IF responded, the two made their way back to the receptionist, ready to take on IF's first Guild quest._

 _The walk from Planeptune City to the western woodlands was a longish one, the road had made the two of them weary due to the distance between the city and their destination. However, when they finally arrived at their destination they could hear the sounds of fernirs feasting upon the bodies of less fortunate people, the bones of the deceased were crushed into pieces as the monsters crunched their way towards the marrow. IF cringed as she looked away in disgust, Victor on the other hand was glaring ferociously at their targets, his teeth were clenched tightly and the blood vessels in his hands and arms were bulging. When IF saw this she looked at her fellow Guild mate with concern for his health._

" _Hey, you alright there, Victor?" she asked in a whispered tone._

 _The young teen awoke from his stupor and shook his head to recover his senses before turning his attention over to IF. "What? Er, yeah, I'm fine, I just hate fernirs is all."_

" _I think It's a bit more than just hating them. What did they do to you?"_

" _I'd rather keep that to myself, if you don't mind."_

 _IF could not help but notice the subtle changes that had occurred with Victor ever since he saw the fernirs, even back at the Guild when he presented the quest to IF she noticed that he was a little tense. He was not just angry, he was almost driven with insanity. "You sure you're alright?" IF asked again. "If you don't want to do this that's okay, we can just go and do another quest instead."_

" _No, I want to do this, I_ have _to do this," came the reply. "IF, there are five small fernirs here, if we can separate them into smaller groups we will have the advantage, these beasts are at their most dangerous when grouped together. Try to lure as many of them away as possible then make them separate into smaller groups, once you accomplish that pick them off as best as you can. I will be doing the same thing, except… I might get a little more bloody, so just be on your guard around me, I don't want to be responsible for anything that happens to you because of me."_

 _IF looked at him, confused at what he was implying, it was clear to her that there was more to Victor than meets the eye. She nodded and made her way to the left, hoping to lure a few of the fernirs away to give Victor the advantage while he did the same. Her quatars appeared as she emerged from the bushes. "Hey, monsters, come get some!" she yelled at them._

 _The fernirs looked at her and growled before breaking out into a full on charge, one of the closer fernirs jumped at her only to end up with a quatar sticking out of its head, leaving only four of the beasts left. With that in mind the Guild agent ran as fast as she could, leaving a dust trail behind her as the fernirs ran after her, until Victor appeared with a bloodthirsty expression. "Over here, bastards," Victor growled as he stood before the fernirs._

 _Two of the monsters broke away from chasing IF and turned their attention to Victor, the teen turned around and ran towards the dense part of the woodlands, hoping to separate the two monsters before picking them off. IF had the same idea, except her speed had thrown her perusers off her trail, causing the two fernirs to head over towards Victor's position. The brunette grumbled and made her way after them as cautiously as possible. Victor, on the other hand, was less than amused, in fact he was seething with anger, not at IF but because of the instincts of the fernirs. The teen stopped in front of a large tree and turned around, three fernirs stood in front of him, ready to tear his throat out, the fourth was somewhere else in the dense woodlands._

" _Guess I have no choice then, oh well," Victor mumbled as he raised his right palm in the direction of the fernirs. "Come at me you filthy maggots!"_

 _The fernirs attacked as one group on all sides, boxing the young teen from escaping, yet that was no longer his goal. Instead he grinned as one of the monsters lunged at his throat, Victor sidestepped the fernir and swung his cane at the beast, the handle caught the monster around the throat and with all the strength he could muster Victor sent the fernir skidding across the ground. With that over he swiftly turned around and raised his right palm directly at the other two fernir, magical energy built up in the palm and a strong gust of wind began to form around them._

" _ **Thundering Typhoon!** " Victor shouted as a large gust of wind tore away from his hand, crashing into the two fernirs and sending them flying onto a nearby tree, snapping their spines and necks._

 _The first fernir was back on its feet and ready for action, but before it could lunge at the tired young teen a blue coated figure with brown hair came out of the trees and plunged a blade through the beast's neck, killing it in an instant. "You alright there, Victor?" IF asked as she withdrew her quatar from the fernir's neck, she watched the corpse disappear into pixels along with the other two._

" _Yeah, I'm fine," was all Victor said in response at first. "What happened to the fourth fernir?"_

" _Took care of that one while you were… well, using wind to defeat the others I guess. What sort of attack was that anyway?"_

" _Oh, it's called wind magic, it's kind of a lost art these days. I've been training myself to use it for the last year but I'm not very good at it." When he looked over at IF he noticed her fascinated expression as well as her attempts to move her hair out of the way of her face. "Seems like you need some help with your hair."_

 _IF grumbled as she nodded. "Yeah, I think I need a hair cut when I get back."_

 _Victor sighed and a small smile appeared on his face as he rummaged through his coat's left pocket. "No need to get a hair cut. To be honest, I… er, I k-kinda like your hair. H-Here, take this." His left and emerged from his pocket and he handed a small object to IF, who was blushing madly as she took it. When the Guild agent opened her hand she was left looking at a green leaf hair accessory, she looked at Victor wit ha confused expression. "It belonged to my mother, I have no use for it but I think – no, I know – that you'll put it to good use. Look after it, will you?"_

 _IF smiled sweetly and nodded. "I'll look after it, I promise." She then moved her brown hair away from her face and put the leaf onto the left side of her head, the hair refrained from falling across her face when it was put in place and the IF that everyone recognised in the future was starting to come together. She smiled at Victor again as she stood next to him. "Let's head back to the Guild, it'll start getting dark if we don't get a move on. I've got a friend you would be excited to meet you if you feel like hanging around me for a while longer. Want to grab some pizza on the way?"_

 _Victor looked stunned for a moment, as IF scratched her head in embarrassment she heard the young teen chuckle. "Sure, I'll go along with you," he replied honestly with a bright smile. "Thanks for inviting me, IF."_

" _S-Sure, no problem." The two then made their way out of the woodlands and back towards Planeptune City, a new friendship had been forged, and both were glad of it._

* * *

"It's been a long time since we've had pizza with you, Victy" Compa said after she swallowed the slice of meatlovers pizza in her mouth, savouring the taste.

"Yeah, sure has. How long has it been exactly?" Victor asked as he leaned back into his chair, a slice of spinach and cheese pizza in his hand, steam rose from it and into the air.

"I think it has been around… oh, five years exactly," IF responded as she licked her finger clean.

"Feels like a lifetime ago for me, everything just went by quickly," Victor said quietly, his gaze dropping to the floor and a saddened expression on his face.

Compa patted Victor on he back and smiled brightly at him. "It's alright, Victy, if you're still feeling bad about leaving us four years ago then just let it go, we don't have any bad feelings towards you. Isn't that right, Iffy?"

"What? Oh, right… yeah, yeah that's right." IF did not sound convincing enough, Compa looked sternly at her while Victor sighed.

"Sure doesn't sound like you're as sympathetic as Compa," the wind mage said, causing the Guild agent to glare at him.

"Well, its just that you left without telling anybody about where you were going or why, I spent weeks, no, months, looking for you but I found nothing. You deserved that punch when you came back, and I think you still do."

"Maybe so, but I had my reasons, and that's all you need to know, IF."

IF frowned and stood up out of her seat, she walked through the Compa's living room and made her way to the door. "I need to walk for a while, I'll be back later," IF declared as she opened the door and closed it behind her, silencing the house.

Victor sighed and stared at the creamy coloured table, depressed and tired. Compa, on the other hand, stared sternly at the wind mage, it almost made him feel uncomfortable to be around the nurse-in-training due to the stare. Eventually she spoke. "Victy, I need you to be honest with me when I ask my next question," Compa informed Victor, causing him to sit up straight.

"Alright then, Compa ask away."

"Tell me, Victy, are you in love with Iffy?"

Victor stared back at Compa and broke out in a mad blush as his face turned bright red, but he knew he had to answer honestly, the scary stare that Compa was emitting was frightening enough. "Y-Y-Yes, I do love her," Victor replied.

"Then go out there and tell her, she needs to know."

"I know that, but I'm worried about what she might reply with, I'm worried that she might say no."

Compa broke out into a giggle, causing the young man to raise an eyebrow. "I don't think you need to worry about that, Victy. Now then, head on out there and tell Iffy how you feel about her. Don't worry about the pizza, I'll save some slices for the two of you when you come back."

Victor nodded, a small smile escaping onto his face. "Alright then, I'll be off. Thanks, Compa, thanks a lot." He ran to the door, opened it and closed it behind him, leaving the young nurse by herself and with a lot of pizza left over. She hummed to herself as she picked up another slice of pizza and chomped down on it.

Meanwhile, Victor arrived onto the street and looked to his left and right for a sign of IF, he eventually saw her walking down the street to his right, she had a quick speed and her hands were in her coat's pockets, she appeared to be leaning forward depressingly. The wind mage ran up to her, passing by tourists and citizens alike just to reach her. When he finally caught up with her the Guild agent stopped and looked at him sternly, she did not appear to be overly happy to see the wind mage again. "What is it, Victor?" she asked him.

"Um, well… how are you?" Victor asked her, his nervousness starting to kick in again.

"I'm fine, I just need some time by myself. Excuse me."

As IF began to walk off she felt Victor grab her by the wrist gently, when the brunette looked over at him she noticed how his cheeks were burning red and his gaze was directed to the ground. "Um, IF, I want to show you something… something personal," he said to her quietly. "It's just outside of the city. Y-You don't have to if you're not interested, I just thought that it might answer some questions that you have."

"Sure, I'll go with you." IF slightly smiled at Victor as he smiled back, he then turned around and led the Guild agent out of the city and into the wilderness, his hand still around her wrist the whole time they walked under the afternoon sky through the city and out into the wild. They walked for hours on end until they came into a clearing around a small amount of trees and rocky hills, a field that was once a wheat farm, the foundations of a stone and wooden house laid on the ground, two large stones were upright in the ground with words carved into it. The scent of death was in the air as Victor stopped in front of the stones, he was still holding her wrist as they stood side-by-side.

"What's this, Victor?" IF asked the wind mage.

"Remember when you asked me about my parents and how I never told you about them? Well, this is what remains of them, and my family house," Victor replied, tears starting to form in the corner of his eyes. "My father was… torn apart by fernirs and my mother burnt the house down along with her just to kill as many of the monsters as possible, but some survived. I… I had to bury what I could find of my parents, it… it… it was painful." Victor then began to cry silently as tears ran down his face, he let go of IF and wiped his face, only go cry even more as he looked back at the graves of his parents. Suddenly IF lunged forward at Victor and wrapped her arms around him, she pressed her face up against his upper chest.

"Everything is going to be alright, Victor, everything will be alright," IF consoled the wind mage soothingly. He responded by hugging her gently, his head rested on the top of her head.

"After all of this I thought I would cease to exist, I had even contemplated on taking my own life as I grew older, even though Lady Histoire took me into her care. But, well, you saved me, IF, you saved me from a fate I was heading down, all because you cared about me, in your own way. Thanks to you I felt emotions again, and now I can say what I want to say without fear." He let go of IF and stood back as she stared at him, waiting for what he had to say while blushing. "IF, I love you."

IF stared in shock and surprise at Victor, to him it seemed that his confession was going to be turned down, that was until she leaned forward quickly and pressed her lips against his for a few seconds. When she leaned back her face was red yet an overly happy expression was on her face. "I love you too, Victor. I always wanted to tell you that for years, but when you disappeared for four years I thought you would never come back. Although, I wish I had confessed first."

"Too bad so sad," Victor chuckled, he was then tackled to the ground with IF on top of him, her face blushing red yet the wind mage noticed that she had the happiest expression that he had ever seen on her face. It was not long before the two of them started make out, each explored each other's mouths to their full extent as their tongues intertwined, this lasted for several minutes before IF stood up and helped Victor up. "We should get back before Compa eats the last of the pizza," Victor suggested.

IF nodded and together the two of them walked away from the graveyard of Victor's past, the two of them walked hand-in-hand as they made their way back to Planeptune City. A new beginning had started for Victor and IF, and they would embrace it.

* * *

 **A/N: IF and Victor have finally become a couple, about damn time I reckon. A few more chapters of peaceful settings before this story gets back to the main storyline, I'm hoping to get the chapters completed a bit more quickly although I hold no promises. The next two chapters are going to be a favourite of mine – guess if you can. On a side note, I had been thinking of including a lemon between IF and Victor for the next chapter but I decided against it, not because I don't want it but because of the story, I thought it would be better if they took things slowly. But to compensate this I am including a lemon in the near future, I am sure you readers can guess who will be included in it. If you have any suggestions or requests please inform me and have yourselves a great day.**


	58. A Birthday to Remember

**Chapter 57: A Birthday to Remember**

The sunlight burst through the partially closed curtains of one of the rooms in the Lowee Basilicom, the light enveloped around the young man who slept in a bed covered with a white sheet and quilt with brown and light blue lining, yet he remained fast asleep with no signs of waking up. Next came the sounds of chirping birds and a heavy breeze blowing against the oversized building, yet again he did not move nor even make a sound. A peaceful expression was on his face, whether he was having a good dream or merely having empty thoughts was unknown. Eventually the young man rolled over to his left side, the pillow hid the left side of his face and his brown cowlick covered his right eye, his right hand was on front of his face while his left arm and hand were behind him, his legs were spread out underneath the bedsheets.

The sleeping man failed to hear his door open slowly, the hinges creaked with the wood as it moved over the brown floor, two sets of feet stepped into the darkly lit room as sneakily as possible, the only sounds came from one of the sneaky figures who hummed a familiar spy theme. They crept over to the bed and peered at the sleeping young man, one of the intruders giggled mischievously as they held a highlighter close to the young man's face while the other peered closely with a packet full of different highlighters in their hands. Then the marker was lowered onto the young man's face and the process of drawing began. The figure who was drawing on the young man's face put a hand over their mouth to muffle their giggles, less they accidentally awoke their victim from his sleep, the other figure stared firmly at the scene.

"Hehehe, this is too fun," the figure who was drawing on the face whispered.

"Should we be doing this?" the other figure asked in the same hushed tone. "I don't think big brother will like this."

"I'll be fine, don't worry about it. He can't hate us, he thinks, and knows, we're too cute to hate." As soon as the figure finished drawing bright yellow swirl marks on the young man's face she mumbled in annoyance as she could not get to the left-hand side of the face. "Oh come on, I wanna draw the rest of the face."

"Come on, Ram, we should go before he wakes up, or before Blanc walks in and catches us again."

Ram looked over at her twins sister and grinned. "It'll be fine. What's the worse that could happen?" As she looked back at the young man she was met with the flaring, bright blue eyes of Brian, the sleeping man had been woken up, and he did not appear to be in the best of moods.

"Again? Seriously, Ram?" Brian asked as he leaned up in his bed, his brown hair was messy and was sticking up in several places, most of the buttons on his black pyjamas were undone and gave the Candidates a good view of his chest, including the scar that marked the operation where Compa and the Planeptune hospital staff did their best to save the young man's life after his first introduction to the Dark Captains.

"S-S-Sorry big brother!" Rom stammered quickly. Ram, on the other hand, was pouting at the Ancient.

"Why did you have to wake up? Dummy," Ram pouted, clearly annoyed that her time for drawing on Brian's face had come to an abrupt end.

The Ancient sighed and placed his hand on top of Ram's head, his grip tightened as he stared at her. "How many times have I already told you not to draw on my face? How many times had Blanc told you not to draw on my face? Hmm?" He lowered his face close to hers and glared.

"S-S-Sorry! I-I didn't mean to annoy you, big bro!" Ram attempted to apologise her way out of her predicament, hoping to save herself from Brian's annoyance. Fortunately for her Brian let go of her head and a small smile crept over his face.

"Well, I wouldn't worry about it if I were you, Ram, I won't harm you." He patted her head as he got out of the bed, grunting as he got onto his feet and straightened his back. The young man reached over at a nearby drink bottle and opened, a small flush of water fell onto his face as he attempted to get as much of the drawing off as possible, to some success.

"So I'm not in trouble?" Ram asked.

"No, not yet anyway, next time you will be though." As he looked over at the nearby desk he appeared confused. "Um, hey, you two, what happened to my coat? I'm sure I left it there last night?"

It was Rom who answered his question. "Big sis took it last night, she said something about getting it patched up or something."

Brian chuckled. "Well, sounds like her to get things of mine patched up. Anyway, I'm off to have a bath. Is there anyone using it, you two?"

Ram shook her head. "Nah, Blanc already used it this morning so it's free. Hey, are you going to play with me and Rom after you're done?"

Brian nodded as he made his way to the door, a fresh set of clothes and a white towel over his left arm, the drink bottle had taken residence on the desk. "Sure thing, but let me have breakfast before that."

The twins nodded quickly, pleased that the young man was going to hang out with them later. As he made his way down the hallway in the direction of the bathroom Rom and Ram stuck their heads out and watched him walk away, the shyer twin looked back at the troublemaker with a concerned expression. "Um, Ram, shouldn't we have told him?" she asked her.

Ram shook her head, a mischievous grin was on her face. "Nah, I just wanna see what happens. Come on, let's go and see what happens."

Brian was unaware about Rom and Ram following him, if he had known what they were up to he would have gone to the bathroom another time during the day, yet that did not happen. As the young man approached the bathroom door he stopped and looked at the gap between the bottom of the door and the floor while his right hand clasped the door handle. _Hmm, no signs of any steam, that's a good start,_ _and the handle indicates that the door is unlocked. I guess it's safe to use._ Brian opened the door and closed it behind him, under the belief that the bathroom was unoccupied, but he was in for a shock. Standing near him with their back to him was none other than Blanc, she was only dressed in white panties that gave Brian a good image of her butt, her clothes were hanging up on a rack next to her on the wall along with her towel.

"What… WH-WH-WHAT?! B-B-BRIAN?! The hell do you think you're doing?!" Blanc yelled as she turned her head around, her cheeks flushed in a bright red colour and she did her best to hid her small breasts and lower half with her arms.

"By the Divines! I-I'm S-S-S-Sorry, Blanc!" Brian turned around quickly to avert his eyes, yet he did not leave, much to his own surprise. "Th-Thing is… Ram told me that no one was using the bathroom so I thought that I could use it, again I'm sorry. I'll be off, please don't hurt me afterwards."

Just as he started to walk back towards the door he felt Blanc clasp her left hand around his left wrist, he stopped yet did not turn around. "Wait, hold up, Brian. I… I d-don't mind if we sh-share the bathroom together. I mean, we're a couple, so this should be okay… right?"

Brian was a bit surprised at first, and his tone of voice indicated that. "You sure about this? I don't think it's normal, Blanc."

"I-I'm sure it'll be fine, I read about it in a book not long ago. Apparently some couples do this sort of thing, wash each other's backs and just talk to each other, I… I want to try that." The nervousness in her voice refused to go away.

"Well, what have I got to loose? Alright then Blanc, we can try bathing together. Just, er, just don't peak while I undress."

"I was going to say the same thing to you. If I even see you trying to get a peak of my body I will smash you into next week." With that Blanc's grip on Brian's wrist was gone and the little CPU retired to the corner of the large bathroom where the showers were with her towel and clothes, she closed the door behind her while Brian locked the bathroom door, he swore that he could hear the muffled sniggering of a young girl behind the closed door.

 _Tch, this_ was _Ram's idea after all. Well, I suppose I'll let her off this time, I ain't exactly complaining here._ Brian turned around and made sure that Blanc had closed the shower door before taking off his own clothes, he placed his pyjamas on a nearby rack and wrapped his towel around him. When the Ancient walked over to the bath, which took up at least a quarter of the bathroom, he stuck his right foot in to test the temperature. "Hmm, guess Blanc must have filled it with warm water when she first got in here, but I don't think it's good enough," Brian mumbled to himself as he approached what looked like a control box that was connected to the heating and cooling system of the bath, he took a good look at it before fiddling with the settings, the bath water became more heated and steam began to rise into the air. "Ah, that should do the trick."

The young man heard the shower door open, revealing Blanc with a towel around her upper and lower waist, she held the top of it as she approached Brian. "Why all the steam?" she asked him.

"The Romans used it for health reasons, so I thought I would do the same, plus the steam will add as a censorship for any of our body parts. Just a precaution in case I turn around abruptly and see you naked," the Ancient explained as he began to step into the steamy bath, Blanc swiftly followed him. The young man took up residence in one corner of the bath while Blanc took another corner, from what Brian could see before the steam covered up most of the area was the Lowean CPU throwing her towel away onto the tiles nearby. _Well ain't she daring? Suppose I'll do the same, it isn't a bath if I'm not naked. Still, this feels weird with another person in the bath, even if it is Blanc. What's she up to with this anyway? It can't be just because of a book, can it? Sheesh, and I thought Rom and Ram were the ones to pick up strange ideas, guess I was wrong after all._ The young man took off his towel and placed it on the tiled ground next to him, his back was facing Blanc while hers was also facing him.

"This is kinda awkward," Blanc said, breaking the silence that was reigning over the two of them.

"Yeah, it is," Brian agreed, nodding his head despite knowing Blanc was not looking at him. "Any ideas? I have none I'm afraid."

Blanc mulled a few ideas over through her mind, analysing each and every one of them as she did so. Not one of them were to her liking, except one which made her blush slightly. "I have an idea, but I don't know if it's the greatest idea I've thought of. How about we w-w-wash each others b-backs?" Blanc sugested, stammering as she spoke of her idea. "I-I read about in the same book, it isn't only couples who do it either you know. So… how about it?"

Brian sighed and grinned soon afterwards. "Sure, alright then, I'm willing to give it a try. I'll go first, keep your back to me, I don't want you to turn around all of a sudden."

"Alright then. There's a sponge of some sort on a rack near me, you can use that if you want." Blanc kept her back to Brian as he turned around and walked over to her, he picked up the sponge, some sort of soap and returned to Blanc. As soon as he gently touched her left shoulder the Lowean CPU shivered and twitched nervously, causing the young man to let go of her with concern.

"You alright there, Blanc?" he asked her, hoping he had not caused the CPU to feel too awkward. "Did I do something wrong?"

Blanc shook her head. "No, no I'm fine, just a bit too nervous. I never had someone wash my back before, I usually do it myself so this is a bit weird. Sorry about that, it's okay to go on, Brian." As Brian nodded, placed a hand on her left shoulder and began to wash her back wit the sponge and soap she felt a little aroused – and in a good way. She had some trouble trying to keep any sort of moan to herself. They way Brian touched her gently, the way he scrubbed her bare, soft skin sent her mind into overdrive. Once the Ancient held onto her waist around the sides of her small gut she stiffened her back and did her best to drive the peculiar thoughts out of her mind. _I-I had no idea he was this good at washing backs, if he does this with Rom and Ram I don't know what might overcome the_ _ir senses_ _._ _Th-This is just t-to good. No, focus Blanc, focus! Stop thinking like this, it's only a back wash, there's nothing_ _else going on here apart from that._

Brian ignored Blanc's stiffened posture and began to wash her arms, hoping that she did not disagree with the action. The Lowean CPU did not do anything to dissuade him from washing her arms, so he continued to do so, scrubbing the soft skin gently while trying to keep his own thoughts and actions to himself, and that was pretty hard – just like something else was slowly becoming. _This is too erotic… I'm impressed that Blanc even suggested it at all. But damn, it's getting harder to keep myself back from doing anything weird, I don't want my hands to_ _do something stupid that might end up with me in hospital._ _Still,_ _I don't mind this situation, not in the slightest,_ _even if my hormones are screaming out to me to do something._

As he continued to think his thoughts were interrupted by Blanc. "Hey, Brian, do you want to write a novel with me? I have a few ideas if you are interested." The nervousness had not escaped her voice or her stiffened posture as Brian continued to wash her arms and back, yet she appeared and sounded to be a little more relaxed than before.

"Sure thing, Blanc, I'd love to write a novel with you," Brian responded patting the CPU on the head and ruffling up her hair, resulting in the Lowean Goddess to turn her head around and flick him on the forehead. The young man laughed and continued to wash her back as soon as her head had turned around again, but as he scrubbed Blanc's back he got further and further down until he reached the bottom of her spine, the young man decided not to go down any further due to what was down there: her bare butt. Brian crawled back as Blanc sighed with relief when she realised that Brian was not going to wash any further down – although a small part of her mind reasoned that it would have been completely fine, and rather erotic, for Brian to wash the rest of her body.

"Thanks, Brian. My turn now, turn around and I'll wash your back."

Brian nodded and turned around before Blanc did, she took hold of the sponge and soap and began to apply it to the young man's back. The Ancient was relaxed when Blanc placed a hand on his left shoulder and washed his back, she found his skin to be soft around his back and upper arms while his lower arms were a bit more rough, at least his left arm was due to it being still made of flesh while his right arm was made out of physical Share Energy. The Lowean CPU washed the Ancient's shoulders gently as she made her ways down his back, she could tell that he had been training for the last few weeks. As Blanc scrubbed away around the middle of his spine and the area around it she could hear Brian mumble something quietly, his fingers were twitching and the Lowean CPU could see the muscles in his arms begin to strain tightly.

"What's wrong, Brian?" Blanc asked, she stopped washing his back and paid more attention to his face, or what she could see of it. "You're twitching again and mumbling, so I'm kinda worried."

"Don't worry about me, Blanc, I'm fine," Brian tried to reason to her.

"Please don't lie to me, you know I hate it when people lie to me, especially you and my little sisters. Just tell me what's wrong, you know I get worried about you easily due to all your problems, specifically all those mental problems of yours."

The young man sighed and slummed his back forward. "Well, I only just remembered but today is my birthday."

"Really? Happy birthday then. But what's with the sad look?"

"I don't know why, but every time my birthday pops up I always become sad and depressed. Don't even ask if I want to do anything for my birthday, I never have and I aim to keep it that way."

"Why though? Why do you do nothing for your birthday? It was the day you were born dammit!" It was clear to Brian that Blanc was starting to get a bit annoyed with his behaviour towards his own birthday, he could not blame her though, most people were just the same as her whenever the occasion arrived once a year.

"I'm sorry, Blanc, but I never feel myself whenever my birthday arrives, probably best if you just forget about it."

"No, I can't go along with that, Brian. That does it, I am going to make this the best birthday you have ever experienced, I guarantee it." Blanc was definitely determined to stick to her pledge, the young man could tell.

The Ancient chuckled and clasped her free hand without turning around. "If it makes you feel any better, then alright. I'll be waiting for what you have planned."

"Well, how about a date? We never got to finish the last one due to the battle in Lastation, so that makes a second reason. How about it?"

"Very well, Blanc, I'll go on a date with you. I presume you won't need my help with setting it up so I'll leave it to you, but if you need my assistance feel free to ask."

Blanc nodded. "Alright then, I'll let you know about the details." The CPU then continued to wash what was left of Brian's unwashed back, she held onto his waist and scrubbed away at his lower back, attempting to keep back any thoughts and ideas. The whole session in the bath was tiring for the two of them, although only mentally due to the strange, and erotic, thoughts and ideas that gathered in their head. Blanc shook her head to disperse the thoughts as she finished up Brian's lower back, as she looked up at the back of his head she noticed how not only did he appear a bit stronger but his hair was also growing, even on his face. "You're going to have to get a haircut at some point, your hair is growing quickly."

"Meh, it doesn't matter to me, I'll get it all trimmed when I start looking like a mop on legs." He then chuckled to himself, it seemed to Blanc that the young man was starting to cheer up slightly, but she could not see the pained look on his face. To Brian his birthday did not just mean that he was a year older, to him it meant something else, but it was something that he did not know. As some of the steam began to disappear his fingers began to twitch as he thought about his birthday. All he could guess about it was that he felt lonely, depressed and a sense of vengeance was starting to flutter in him; the darkness in his heart was growing. Suddenly he saw Blanc's arms wrap around his chest and she pressed herself gently up onto his back, carefully doing her best not to press her chest against him.

"B-Blanc? Why are you hugging me?" Brian asked, his head turning around slightly.

"I understand that you are feeling bitter and depressed, I know you have a dark heart, I may not fully understand how you feel but I have also dealt with similar situations when I was younger during the two centuries of my rule. I want to help you, Brian, I have to for your sake, because I love you."

The young man sighed and placed his hands on her arms. "Thank you for caring, Blanc, I really mean it, I love you too." Then he felt something press up against his chest, something was poking into his flesh that made his nerves send all sorts of signals to his mind, Blanc had also started to hug him a somewhat more tightly. It was then that Brian realised what was digging into his back. "Um, Blanc, er… c-c-can you move back please?"

"Huh? What's wrong?" Blanc asked, completely unaware of the situation.

"Well, its just, um…" The Ancient sighed and steadied his nerves – and dirty thoughts – as best he could. "Blanc, I can feel your hardened nipples digging into my back."

"What?" Blanc looked down to see that Brian was indeed true, her face turned bright red and she launched back away from the Ancient with an embarrassed shriek. "I-I-I'm s-s-sorry Brian!"

"I-It's alright, I actually didn't mind it." He blushed and scratched the back of his head, he kept his gaze firmly ahead of him while Blanc recovered her composure.

"Pervert," the Lowean CPU grumbled as she got back behind Brian.

"Only for you, Blanc." The young man then facepalmed and groaned, clearly he was not impressed with himself. "Damn it, I just had to say that didn't I? I'm such a damn idiot."

Blanc chuckled and gently knocked Brian on the head. "You sure can be, but you're my idiot, and I wouldn't trade it for the world. Just remember to keep your thoughts to yourself next time, you pervert."

The Ancient groaned as Blanc teased him, yet he did not get aggravated, instead he seemed to have brightened up a bit even though he still felt down-in-the-dumps. "Sure, whatever you say.." He lunged forward and washed his head in the water before shaking his hair around after he retreated from the water. "Alright, I think we've done cleaning each other's backs."

Blanc nodded. "I'm going to stay a bit longer, I'll let you know when I got the date set up. Try to have a good birthday."

"I'll do my best, and thank you. Now, avert your eyes in the other direction away from me while I wrap my towel around me." He heard Blanc turn around, thus he stood up, grabbed his towel and wrapped it around his waist. The Ancient grabbed his clothes and made his way over to the nearby shower to get changed, this left Blanc in the bath by herself with all the space she needed to relax. Once Brian finished changing into a fresh set of clothes he emerged and made his way to the bathroom door, but before unlocking the door the Ancient stopped and turned back to Blanc. "Blanc, you may be surprised to know that I can also tell what troubles you at times, for a start you always worry about the size of your breasts. Just leave it be. No one is perfect, and I am a prime example of that, instead accept who you are and what you got. Besides, I… I love who for who you are, so don't change anything about yourself."

Blanc blushed madly as Brian left the bathroom, closing the door behind him and leaving the Lowean Goddess to her own devices. The final words that Brian spoke to her caused her mind to think of all different matters, eventually she groaned and sank deeper into the bath. _Of course Brian just had to say that, didn't he? Well, he was_ _being honest at leas_ _t._ _Well, that's just one reason why I feel this way about him. I have to help him, otherwise I'm not sure what will happen if he gives in to his bloodline's curse. I have to make this birthday of his the best he has ever, and will, have, all I have to do is think of what we can do for the day. Maybe Mina can help me with all that. I just hope that today will be the best birthday he will ever have._ Blanc thought to herself as she smiled, wondering what the day will bring.

* * *

"Grraahhh!" Brian yelled as he sliced his Armas Mecha Sword through the metallic-like slime beast, better known as a metal mogoo – a subspecies of the common dogoo found throughout Planeptune's wilderness.

The young Ancient was on another mission for the Lowee Guild, this time he was out in the woodland areas north the Planeptune-Lowee border and west of Lowee City, the monsters he had to wipe out were a subspecies of dogoos who had migrated to areas in Lastation and Lowee. The mob of metal dogoos in Lowean territory had started to become more aggressive than usual for reasons unknown, although Brian had his suspicions. The metal dogoo attacks had so far been quite co-ordinated and were always focused on travellers on the roads, this made tourism in Lowee lower than usual. Now the attacks were getting out of hand so Brian tasked himself with annihilating them. The Ancient, after playing a few rounds of the Plumber series and after drawing some pictures with Rom and Ram, made his way to the Guild and accepted the quest. Now he was in the snow clad woodlands, fighting off the horde of metal dogoos with a temper.

The young man held his Armas Sword tightly in two hands, his eyes glowed brightly and his body flickered like a blue flame, before him on all sides were metal dogoos, their overly happy expressions pissed the young man off. "Come and get some, you slimy perverted bastards!" Brian challenged his opponents.

The metal dogoos – who were not so much as metal but instead a metal-like slime which made it harder for people to slay them – surrounded the young man and advanced on him, the first two who jumped at him were met with the swift slash of his sword, the dark blade pierced through the slimy hide of the monsters, they soon turned into pixels and disappeared. Brian grinned as he returned to a defiant stance against the rest of the metal dogoo horde, silently thanking his mind for remembering to upgrade his Armas Sword to make it better against all types of monsters, no matter how hard their skin was. He smirked victoriously as the remaining metal dogoos stared at him sternly, their advance had been halted. At least for a moment.

The metal dogoos looked at each other for a moment before advancing on the young man as one group, the Ancient's expression did not change, instead he continued to grin and swipe his sword at his slimy opponents, hacking and slashing with precision. Since the metal dogoos were slow Brian had the upper hand, especially since he could jump over them and attack from behind. The young Ancient slashed at a dogoo and crushed another one with his booted foot in an instant, although he did groan in annoyance as he saw all the slime on his boot, but he paid little heed to it. One by one the metal dogoos fell to his dark blade, the young man grinned away as he slaughtered them, the darkness in his heart felt glad at the whole experience. Eventually only a few of the metal dogoos remained, but to Brian's surprise they stayed back away from him.

"The hell are they doing?" he asked himself. "It's almost as if they're waiting for something." That was when his sixth sense kicked in and he sensed something dangerous approaching, he turned around and looked behind him to see something he never expected to see: a large, oversized metal dogoo. It stood around sixteen feet tall and wider than a small bus, its goofy smile and stare was directed towards the Ancient. Brian stared at it as the colour in his face dropped.

"Holy shit," was all Brian could say before the oversized creature attacked, it jumped at the young man with the intention of swallowing him in its slimy body, if that were to happen then the Ancient would be slowly dissolved into nothing more than energy for the oversized metal dogoo. Brian dodged the attack and glared viciously at his enemy before realising that the remaining metal dogoos were coming after him. _Tch, this going to be harder than I originally thought. I gotta take out the big one or else I'm done for! Then again, I could go after the smaller ones first, if I were to kill the big one I'm pretty sure I would have used up a lot of whatever strength I have left. Thank the Divines for the Share Energy, if I had none of it I'm sure I would have been dogoo food by now._

With that in mind Brian swiped his sword vertically through one of the remaining small metal dogoos, its slime covering the black blade as the creature turned into pixels, the surviving dogoos leapt after him alongside the oversized beast. The Ancient glared at his opponents and gripped his sword tightly, he charged at one metal dogoo and slashed at the monster before running up to another of the smaller ones, he stabbed it through the face and lifted it off the ground before throwing it out of the combat zone, both disappeared into pixels. There was only three small metal dogoos and the large one left. The three smaller monsters converged on Brian as one group, they jumped up at him at the same time in the hope of pinning him down, but it barely worked. The young man sidestepped the dogoos and brought his blade down upon them, slaying two of their number while the third remained alive, its goofy smile continuing to piss off Brian.

"Stop smiling already!" Brian yelled at his opponent, slashing and hacking away at it. Once the dogoo died the Ancient grinned victoriously, but then a shadow enveloped around him and the feeling of something slimy engulfed him. The young man had been absorbed into the giant metal dogoo's body. It would not take long for the dissolving effect to start, and Brian was not going to let that happen, he attempted to move his arms but the slime was too strong, it fixed him into place and he could hardly move a muscle. _Damn it, is this how I'm going to die? Being dissolved by a giant metal dogoo bastard?_ _No… I will not end like this. Not now, not ever. I have to break free, for Blanc, for Rom and Ram, for all those who are counting on me!_ _I WILL NOT DIE LIKE THIS!_

The hatred and anger sweeping into his emotions empowered the Share Energy, his body flared up brightly and the strange, Ancient-like markings appeared across his flesh, the young man looked like some sort of supernatural Ancient warrior from the old tales that were from Gamindustri's early history. All the power that flowed within him enabled the Ancient to move his limbs once more, enabling him to make his counter-attack. " **Burning Abyss!** " Brian shouted as a bright ball of energy engulfed him, when it exploded the giant dogoo was torn to shreds, large pieces of slime splattered around the place as Brian fell to the ground, he was covered in metal-like slime from head to toe.

"Ah damn it, now Blanc is going to have an absolute temper tantrum when she sees me looking like this," Brian grumbled to himself, gazing at the slime all over his body, his clothes and hair drenched in it. "And I have to go through the city looking like this, how humiliating."

"Yep, you sure look slimy there kiddo," a womanly voice called out, it sounded cheeky and it did no take the young man very long to recognise it.

"Well, come on out, Bellona," Brian said, looking at the area around him. "There's no need to be shy."

"Funny coming from someone like you." The ghostly former CPU of Lowee emerged from the bushes and strode over to the Ancient, she was grinning at him all the way as she stopped walking and stood next to him. "So, how's my favourite Ancient going? I heard it was someone's birthday today."

Brian sighed and nodded. "Yeah, it's my birthday today, though I'm not pleased about it."

"Why is that? Bad memories or something?"

Brian shrugged. "I have no idea really, I just feel depressed, sad and bitter in general whenever my birthday always pops up, I guess you can say that I hate my birthday." He glanced away from the former CPU, sighing depressingly as he did so. "Sorry, Bellona, I'm not really good company at the moment, I'm rather in a bad mood at the moment."

Bellona stared at Brian sternly, the young man was not sure what was flowing through her mind at that moment, despite her usual cheeky and somewhat perverted nature she could also be serious and even cold towards people, her stare was enough to tell the Ancient that. To his surprise the ghostlike CPU laughed and patted the young man on the back roughly, she continued to grin after her laughing session was over. "Ah Brian, you damn foolish idiot, you shouldn't worry about it. After all, Blanc will set you straight."

Brian chuckled as he leaned up against a nearby tree. "Yeah, she just might."

The former CPU stared at Brian and her grin formed into a small smile. "You know, you remind me of the Mechanist, he was always grim just like you."

"The Mechanist? Who was he?" Brian asked, his curiosity piqued.

"You know him, he's called Wraith. Us former CPUs called him the Mechanist due to all the technology he gifted us after our nations were firmly established, thanks to that former Tari Oracle Gamindustri is more advanced than ever, yet no one but us four remember him." Bellona sighed and her expression became more stern. "You remind me of him, not only in your mood but also you just look like him, well, kinda anyway, I never seen him without his scarf off. If I were to see the two of you together I doubt I would tell the difference."

"Is that so? What else do you know about him?"

Bellona shrugged. "Not much, all I know of him is that he was once the Oracle of Tari but led the people against the CPU he served, though why he even served a madwoman like her is beyond me. Beside that I have no further information about him, except that he is very powerful, possible even as strong or stronger than the CPUs. He never spoke much and would try to keep to himself, although he was taught by Minerva in the art of Darkside."

"Speaking of, how's Minerva going?" Brian asked, changing the subject due to the conversation dying away.

Bellona chuckled, her expression becoming more cheery. "Ah she's fine, could be better though. Both of us got chewed out by Uranus and Venus due to the two of us breaking our oath, but fortunately Wraith managed to get us both out of trouble, although we're being watched by those two goddesses in case it happens again. Heh, even if I do help you again they won't stop me, so just remember that if you ever need my help I'll help you out. Maybe we can even merge into one entity again, although I would have to get use to having a dick."

The young man slightly blushed and stammered in embarrassment. "Th-The h-hell, Bellona?! H-How can you say that without embarrassment or shame?!"

Bellona shrugged and grinned mischievously. "I just can, I have no shame after all. Anyway, I better let you go, don't want to keep that Blanny of yours waiting anxiously. Happy birthday, Brian." With that Bellona patted the Ancient on the head gently and walked away, her figure began to dissipate into matter until she disappeared into nothing, leaving Brian by himself in the woodlands with only his thoughts of what the day would bring to keep him company.

* * *

The day had worn on, the light cool breeze had started to kick in as the late afternoon dawned over Gamindustri, and as the sun began to disappear over the western horizon the city of Lowee began to calm down into a slumbering silence. The snow clad streets of Lowee City were nearly empty as most people were in their homes, eating their dinner, reading a book or watching TV, but not two certain figures. Blanc and Brian were walking down the street side-by-side with the Lowean CPU taking a slight lead as she directed the young man, the two of them were having their planned date, although the Ancient had no idea why it had to occur late in the day when the sun was going down.

"Where are we going, Blanc?" Brian asked, straightening his Lowean styled white coat.

"Remember our first date when I was having trouble with that novel?" When Brian nodded she smiled, obviously glad that he remembered. "Well, I thought it would be a good idea to revisit it, so we're going to visit that library and then the cafe. The cafe is usually closed at this time of the day, but I had a word with the manager and she agreed to keep it open for us until we leave. After that I have something I want to show you."

Brian looked over at Blanc, his interests piqued. "Oh? What is this 'something' that you want to show me?"

"I'm not telling you, it would spoil the surprise, but we have to wait until the moon has settled in the sky." Blanc remained silent afterwards, refusing to give away anything else about their date.

When they arrived at the library they found that there was hardly anyone around, the library was practically empty save for a few stragglers who sat around the place, keeping to themselves while reading books. Blanc took his right hand and led him to the corner of the library where there were no people to be seen, in the corner there was a brown lounge and two chairs, a large shelf filled to the brim with books, all of them in the fiction section. The young man sat on the couch as Blanc pulled out a few books from the fiction section for them to read, from what Brian could gather it seemed that blanc had an interest in fantasy, this was highlighted when Blanc sat down next to him with a pile of books involving around fantasy, adventure, romance and even drama.

"isn't this a bit too much, Blanc?" Brian asked as he picked up one of the adventure based books. "I thought we were going to the cafe at some point."

"Yes, well, I know that, but I got some extra to take back with us when we return to the Basilicom," Blanc replied, her attention focused on the book in her hands, her eyes following line after line.

The young Ancient smiled and began to read the book he had chosen, after going through it for an hour he thought it to be in good taste. The novel involved a man who travelled a snowy and cold land filled with all manner of monsters and different races, he was chosen by prophecy to be the ultimate dragon slayer, the last of his kind, and the final battle between the dragon slayer and the first-born of a dragon god was definitely climatic, altogether it was shorter than most but enjoyable. _Funny, it kinda reminds me of something, a certain game in fact._ Brian thought to himself as he closed the book and set it down next to him. He looked over at Blanc to see her reading a novel with romance, adventure and fantasy involved in it.

"Liking it?" Brian asked, his face lit up with a smile.

The little goddess nodded, half of her face was hidden behind the book while her gaze was now directed towards the young man. "I am liking it, I think it has an interesting plot. The main character is a hero who also happens to be a mix between a rogue and a ranger of sorts, he travelled with a band of humans along with his father who made a living off the land around them. But one day a raiding party of happen upon them and slaughter the group with only the hero surviving, he takes his father's ring to remember him and wanders off into the wild, trying his best to survive, until one day he stumbles across an elven maiden who he accidentally frightens off."

"What happened next?"

"Well, he stumbles across the elf again but this time she sticks around after he calls for her, then… well, it turns into a romance between them from there on out. However, the elven maiden is the daughter of this elven king who hates the idea of his bloodline intermingling with that of a human, so when the hero asks for the king's daughter's hand in marriage he is forced to prove himself worthy, so the hero is tasked with retrieving an ancient magical stone that had been stolen centuries ago by a traitorous spirit in elven-like form from his iron stronghold in the wastelands."

"And after that?"

Blanc shrugged. "I don't know, I just finished reading up to that bit before you interrupted me."

Brian glanced away wit ha guilty expression. "Oh, sorry about that, Blanc."

To his surprise the CPU giggled and gently knocked him on the head. "No need to apologies, Brian. Besides, I think it's time we got to that cafe and have some dinner, I am getting hungry." After she said that her stomach growled with anticipation, causing her to blush and grumble.

Brian chuckled and stood up, extending a hand to the Lowean CPU. "Let's get going then, we should borrow these books as well."

Blanc smiled and nodded her head as she was helped up. "Very well then, I am eager to read the rest of this book, perhaps we can get some ideas off it for our own novel."

Once they had borrowed the books and left the library the brown haired duo made their way down the street towards the cafe, the sky had grown darker and the moon was out, the stars glittered the night sky. The street was empty except for the CPU and the Ancient, but all around them in nearny homesteads the lights were on and people were still awake, but aside from that things were quiet. They turned a corner and arrived outside the cafe, they entered it and were met by the manager, who was a middle-aged woman with flowing black hair and wore a set of brown overalls. "Greetings, Lady White Heart, the meals have just been prepared, including our drinks," she said with courtesy.

Brian looked at Blanc with a confused expression. "You already ordered our meals ahead of time?"

Blanc nodded. "Of course." She then turned her attention over to the manager. "We'll be over at table seven."

The manager nodded and went to the cafe's kitchen to retrieve the food and drinks, when she returned Brian was initially awestruck with the food that was placed on the table. First of there there pastries, a meat pie and two bowls of steaming hot soup filled with noodles and a variety of vegetables, Brian's drink was a double espresso iced coffee in a tall glass while Blanc's was a hot macchiato in a small mug. The manager bowed and left them to their own devices. Brian looked at Blanc and stared at her as she began to dig into one of the pastries. "Isn't this a bit much, Blanc?" Brian asked, smiling away as he grabbed the meat pie and began to carve into it.

"We'll need to energy, trust me," was all Blanc said in response, causing the young man to raise an eyebrow, but nothing more was said on the matter. After ten minutes of eating in silence Blanc looked at the Ancient as she wiped her mouth clean. "Hey, Brian, do you think I'm a good sister towards Rom and Ram?"

Brian stopped eating his noodle soup and focused his full attention towards Blanc. "What do you mean by that?"

The Lowean CPU's expression became a mix between guilt and gloominess, she had a hard time attempting to keep her eyesight on the Ancient. "Well, sometimes I believe that I'm not the greatest sister that they could have had, I mean, I usually swear at them and focus most of my rage against them. What I guess I'm trying to say is that I don't think I'm good enough for them."

Brian sighed and patted the CPU as he smiled at her. "Hey, don't worry about it, they sure can be annoying at times but that's normal for siblings. You may not be aware of this but Rom inspires to be just like you will Ram admires you, so you're definitely doing something right. You are a good sister to them, I can vouch for that."

Blanc blushed slightly and sighed with relief. "Thank you, Brian, I needed to hear that." She then continued to eat away at what was left of their dinner until there was nothing left.

* * *

"Are we almost there yet?" Brian asked, his legs were beginning to whine in complaint as he and Blanc walked along the dirt track out of the city and into the wilderness.

"We're just about there, keep yourself together," the Lowean Goddess responded, her tone indicated that she was beginning to become annoyed at the young man's whining.

The only source of light came from the moonlight and the Share Energy that was emitting from the palm of Brian's right hand, he had focused the Energy into a ball of light which lightened the area around them as they continued to trod down the path. Blanc was leading the way with Brian tailing closely behind her. The young man had not been in this part of Lowee before, not that he would have remembered all of it even if he had been in the area before. The cool breeze blew his hair across his face and as he brushed it aside he noticed that Blanc had stopped walking.

"We're here," the CPU informed the Ancient.

When Brian walked up and stood next to Blanc he looked out at the scenery before him and he was struck into silence. Before them was a large frozen lake, the ice appeared to sparkle in the moonlight as if it were made of a magical substance, the brightness was glittering and the Ancient could see his and Blanc's reflection in the ice, all of it made a lasting image in his mind. This was something for him to remember. As he stood there in silence he felt the Lowean CPU clasp his left hand with her right, her head rested against his left arm and when the young Ancient looked down at her he could see a cheerful expression on her face.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Blanc asked him in a quiet voice.

The young man nodded. "It sure is, I could just stand here for all eternity and forget all of my troubles. Thank you Blanc, thank you for everything today. This is definitely the best birthday I have had since… well, forever I guess."

Blanc chuckled, clearly amused with the young man. "Glad to help, and I should also be thanking you for everything you have done for me, my sisters, Mina and all of Gamindustri. Even if you are to be hated and feared by everyone else out there just remember that not everyone thinks of you in that way, you will always be welcome in Lowee if I have a say in it all. I love you, Brian, and I don't want to loose you."

"I love you too, Blanc, and thank you." They then stood there in silence, forgetting about their troubles and merely embraced the moment. After a while Blanc tugged on Brian's sleeve.

"Come on, we better get back, it's getting late," Blanc told him. "Plus there's something else I have to show you: a birthday present." As they made their way back down the dirt path towards Lowee City Brian wondered why Blanc was blushing furiously, he shrugged it off and continued to hold her hand as they made it back to the Basilicom after a long walk back home.

* * *

 **A/N: Hehehehehe… washing each others backs, never thought I would include it, well, I did write a lemon before so I guess this was expected. I do not know when the next chapter will be released, maybe in a week or two or more for all I know, it'll take time unfortunately. This is all due to one thing: a lemon! It's clear who will be involved in it. There is also an announcement that has to be made: this is the beginning of the end for The Rising Darkness, the story it nearing the end. By the end of chapter 64 The Rising Darkness will be completed, I won't spoil it any further than that though, apart from informing all of you that there will be a sequel, a far much longer story than this one filled with suspense, a bit of drama, supernatural stuff and blood and gore, maybe some other things as well. Anyway, if you have any suggestions, requests or the like then please inform me – it helps with distracting me from boring work – and attempt to have a great day if possible.**


	59. Flat Is Justice

**Chapter 58: Flat Is Justice**

* * *

 **A/N: Read only if you are of a proper age, this is a lemon – sex scene – and I will refuse to be held responsible for anyone who is under the required age to be warped into a complete pervert. Regardless, enjoy!**

* * *

The trip back to the Lowee Basilicom was quiet, hardly a single noise could be heard as the two love-birds walked along the dirt track into the city and towards the centre of government in Lowee. When they arrived in the Basilicom everything was darkly lit, barely a single guard could be spotted and the atmosphere was cold and silent. The only sounds that could be heard came from the tapping noises of Blanc's and Brian's footwear, the sounds echoed down the large, empty hallways, it was as if there was nobody around nor had there ever been. Brian gazed around the place and found it strangely calming, he was usually asleep by this time of night, in fact from what he could gather it was around half past twelve in the morning, he had stayed up this late before but that was back during his life on Earth.

What was troubling him was Blanc's behaviour, she was continuing to blush alarmingly as they held hands together while walking towards the young man's room, apparently the CPU said that her present was there. _Quite a genius place to_ _store my present actually, I would have never guessed that it would be there. Still, I wonder what Blanc got for me? Personally I wish that I didn't get this much attention for my birthday, but Blanc definitely did a great job making it worthwhile._ Brian thought to himself as they entered his room, the door creaked open as the young man entered alongside Blanc.

"Well, here we are," Brian said as he stood by his bed glancing at the Lowean CPU next to him. "Been a while since you were here, unless you actually did hide a present for me in here."

"I didn't hide it, well, kinda anyway," Blanc retorted, looking away as her cheeks flushed a bright red.

"What's wrong, Blanc? Are you ill or something?"

Blanc shook her head. "No, no I'm not. Just… just a bit nervous is all." She looked over at the door before glancing back at the Ancient. "Um… d-do you mind turning around? I-I'm getting the present."

Brian nodded and complied with Blanc's request, although he did wonder why he heard the door lock click as it was locked. Then came the sounds of clothes rustling about, it was not the sound that Brian had been expecting, but then again he did not know what to expect, especially coming from someone like Blanc who's mood could change quickly if she was either happy or angry. The young man heard the little goddess walking about as clothing fell around the place, then came an ominous silence. Finally Blanc spoke, her words were more nervous than ever.

"A-A-Alright, Brian, y-you c-can turn around n-now," Blanc instructed the Ancient, her stammer getting only worse.

When Brian turned around he had been expecting something like a badly written novel, poem or drawing, but instead he got something which only his wildest fantasies had ever dreamt of. Standing before him was a completely naked Blanc, her erect nipples bare to see, her small and flat stomach which led to her lower regions where Brian could see her vagina, plain and bare for him to see. Her expression was mixed with embarrassment and nervousness, her glance was to the floor beneath her and her arms were to her sides. "Well, you've guessed it: I am the p-present." She sighed deeply and did her best to look at the young Ancient. "I-I'm sorry for springing this on you, but… I love you Brian and I want to prove it, I want to take our relationship up the next level and yes, that means… er… s-s-sex. I-I can understand if you don't, I'm sorry-" she was cut short when Brian gently grabbed her by the chin and locked lips with her, when they broke away Blanc could see his cheeks were red and a loving smile was on his face.

"You don't need to prove that you love me, you already have," he said as he kissed her one more time, their tongues intertwined and their arms wrapped around each other.

Blanc began to take of the young man's clothing piece by piece while doing her best to keep her lips firmly locked into place with his, eventually his coat and shirt had come undone and were piled onto the ground. She then pushed him onto the bed and sat on his lap facing him, her expression had turned into a cheeky and cocky look, the Lowean CPU felt something in Brian's pants, something hard and growing. With a cheeky grin she began to ride back and forward, her already moistened pussy lips rode against Brian hardened member which was still hidden in his pants. Blanc's face turned into one full of ecstasy, the tip of her tongue poked out of her mouth and her eyelids became droopy, then came the moaning.

Blanc's moans were cut by Brian sticking his tongue in her mouth while he gently caressed her breasts, his fingers twisted her hardened nipples, resulting in the CPU to cry out in a seductive ecstasy. Not long afterwards the young man broke away from the kiss and lunged his mouth forward around Blanc's left nipple, his tongue licked around as he suckled it like a baby, the Lowean CPU moaned before giggling as she patted Brian head. "So you do really like them," Blanc said.

Brian lifted his head up and grinned at the CPU riding him. "Of course I love your breast size, after all, flat is justice."

Blanc smiled lovingly and let the Ancient resume his attack on her nipples, he began to suck and nibble away at the left breast while his left hand fondled with her other breast, his free hand was wrapped around her back. As soon as Brian started to suck away on Blanc's right nipple she could feel something starting to swell up in her lower region. "Brian… I feel something… I think I'm going to cum," Blanc warned the young man, barely able to contain herself.

All of a sudden Brian stopped what he was doing and drew back from Blanc, to her surprise he swiftly grabbed her and threw her on her back onto the bed, next thing she saw was his head appearing near her slit, his expression was somewhat embarrassed as he then stared at his lover. "Um… you don't mind if…" Brian attempted to say without stammering.

Blanc nodded, resulting in the young man to lower his head until his lips connected with her pussy, he then stuck his tongue in between her lower lips and began to work his way around her luscious honeypot. The Lowean CPU moaned in ecstasy ash she felt Brian's tongue search its way through her, she then felt the Ancient start to nibble away which sent her into a frenzy, she moaned his name and wrapped her legs around the back of his head, preventing the young man from getting up. Blanc was quite sensitive, but Brian was having a bit too much fun eating her out. His grip on her waist tightened as his tongue searched every part of her vagina, his pleasure senses began to ring bells in his mind as his cock attempted to get out of the confines of his pants.

"Brian… Brian…" Blanc moaned constantly, her vaginal walls enclosing tightly around the young man's tongue, the CPU was beginning to become lost in her own desires. She felt the odd feeling building up in her lower regions once more, and there was nothing that could stop it this time. "Brian… I'm… I'm cumming!"

As soon as she cried out the Lowean CPU felt a rush of energy escape her, her nectar rushed forward and escaped her pussy, it splattered all across Brian's face and into his open mouth where he invitingly took as much as he could, she held her hands on his head and locked it into place. As Blanc breathed deeply for air her legs returned to Brian's sides and her arms sprawled out next to her, droll flowed from her mouth and onto the bed. When Brian raised his head Blanc could see traces of her juices all over his face, he licked up as much as possible and smiled.

"You taste pretty sweet, Blanc," Brian informed her, sticking his thumb up in approval. He sat down on a nearby chair to gather his breath and regain some strength, as he breathed in and out he felt the tip of his dick start to escape his pants, he looked down and sighed with a small smile. _Guess I know what will be happening next._ He though to himself.

It was not long before Blanc walked up to him, a devious grin was across her face as he knelt down and began pulling away at the last vestiges of his clothing, he did not complain and helped the CPU remove his pants. "Now it's my turn," Blanc said, her grin widening. Once they had thrown away the last of his clothes Blanc was left staring at the hardened member known as a penis, she stared at it in bewilderment, unsure about what to do with it. Eventually, her right hand gently took hold of the shaft and she began to move it up and down, the sensual moans that came from Brian indicated that she was doing something right. The CPU then became a little more bold, she moved her hand away from his shaft and began to massage his testicles while her head lowered towards his cock, she then wrapped her tongue around the tip of his phallus, moving her tongue around as she explored every bit of it, Brian groaned in delight and began to run his left hand through her hair, the noises that could be heard turned him on.

"You're… pretty good at this," Brian informed Blanc, he was barely able to contain the urge to shove his cock fully into Blanc's mouth and start thrusting her then and there.

The CPU looked up at the young man and blushed, breaking away from her meal. "I am? I don't really know what I'm doing, I guess it's just some sort of primal instinct."

Brian smiled and patted Blanc. "Well then, let's get on with it. Do whatever you want, Blanc."

The Lowean CPU grinned at took her action up a notch, she lunged forward and took in all of Brian hardened dick into her mouth, her lips reached the bottom of his shaft as her hands gripped the sides of his waist tightly, she could feel the tip of Brian's cock rubbing against the back of her throat which made her almost gag. She started to bob her head up and down, her tongue danced around the Ancient's cock, she savoured the taste of his hardened flesh and began to message his testicles, the Lowean goddess made succulent sucking noises which were music to Brian's ears. At times Blanc would stop and change tactics by grabbing hold of Brian's cock and gently stroke it while wrapping her tongue around the shaft, the CPU of Lowee was enjoying the whole experience.

When Brian looked down after moaning in pleasure he saw that Blanc had started to continue sucking his cock while her fingers were making short work of her dripping pussy, he watched as her fingers slid in and out, wet slicking noises were heard from the fingerjob and the blowjob. The young Ancient rubbed his fingers through the CPU's hair and rubber her head gently, the sensation from the whole experience was utterly phenomenal, he had never been in so much bliss. Then he felt something building up in his dick, he felt it start to throb as the young man began to reach his climax. As Blanc bobbed her head up and down the shaft, her tongue wrapping and moving along with the motion of her head, she could feel his cock starting to throb uncontrollably, her eyes glanced up at the young man, his teeth were clenched and his hands were gripping the sides of the chair firmly.

"Sorry… Blanc… I'm… I'm cumming!" Brian cried out as jets of his semen erupted from his cock and down Blanc's hungry throat, there was a lot more than she anticipated and the Lowean CPU struggled with keeping it all in her mouth as she swallowed bit after bit, savouring the taste of Brian's cum. Her eyelids closed and she nearly spat out a whole lot of semen, when Blanc took Brian's still hard dick out of her mouth the young man noticed strands of his juices sprawled all across her teeth, tongue and around the back of her throat. The CPU grinned and swirled it all around in her mouth before opening it to reveal all of Brian's cum being played with on her teeth with her tongue.

"Does this turn you on?" Blanc asked, her tongue swirling the cum all around in her mouth for the Ancient to see.

Brian nodded as he breathed deeply for air. "Sure does, but you didn't have to swallow all of that you know."

The little goddess swallowed the last of the semen in her mouth and smiled lovingly at her lover. "I know, but I was just caught up in the moment. Besides, it doesn't taste all that bad." She stood up and moved closer to Brian, the CPU grabbed hold of his shoulders and began to lower herself down on top of him until the tip of his phallus was rubbing against her pussy lips, both lovers felt tinges of sexual pleasure just from that.

"Are you sure this is okay, Blanc?" Brian asked, his voice filled with concern as his hands held onto the CPU's arms. "I don't want to see you hurt, or in any sort of bad shape. Plus, er, well… y-y-you k-know what happens sometimes after these sorts of situations."

Blanc stared at Brian and smiled, her left hand clasped his right cheek and she rubbed his face affectionately. "It'll be fine, trust me on this, Brian. Anyway, nothing will happen later down the track, I made sure just in case."

The Ancient chuckled. "You were planning this all along, weren't you? You've probably been hatching this plan to seduce me for days, and my birthday was just the perfect excuse. Well, Blanc, having you right now is the best birthday present I could ever have. I'll be gentle, I promise. If it starts to hurt let me know and we'll stop, I would hate myself if I hurt you."

Blanc smiled affectionately and kissed Brian on the lips, it was passionate and full of lust, when they broke away they were ready to take the next step. The CPU's legs swung over Brian's legs firmly, her hands gripped his shoulders tightly and she lowered herself onto his rod. As the tip entered her she gritted her teeth and forced herself to go lower, as soon as his cock was halfway into her vagina Blanc stopped and breathed in and out heavily, her eyes were closed and her expression was mixed between pain and pleasure. Brian, feeling guilty at the sight, moved his head forward and embraced the Lowean CPU in a passionate kiss, her tongue forced its way into his mouth and battled for dominance with his own, as this occurred Blanc forced herself down further until the base of Brian's cock was brushing up against the CPU's pussy lips, the young man's cock became fully entrenched within her.

Brian could feel Blanc's inner walls tighten around his shaft, increasing his already heightened pleasure senses, he looked at Blanc to see her trying to adjust to it all, her breathing remained heavy and her grip on his shoulders tightened so much that her fingernails began to dig into his skin. "You okay, Blanc?" the Ancient asked, worried for her well-being, his own voice was filled with heavy breathing. "If this is too much for you we can stop." He swore that he could see a small strand of blood leaking out of her vagina.

The Lowean CPU shook her head, opening her eyes and looking at the young man with a smile on her face. "No, I'm… fine, just getting used to this. You're… pretty big you know."

"Well you're pretty tight."

"Is… that bad?"

Brian grinned and pecked Blanc on the lips. "No, course not, it just means that I may not hold out as long though."

Blanc wrapped her arms around the young Ancient's neck, her hands resting on his shoulders, she moved her head forward and together they made out as she started to move up and down on Brian's cock in a slow pace. It was the most sensational amount of pleasure that Blanc had ever felt, as soon as the initial pain had subsided the CPU began to feel, well, she did not know how to describe it, but it was something that she thought was never possible. The feeling of making out with the man she loved, the feeling of talking and acting dirty, the feeling of having a cock buried within her dripping pussy and having it pierce her where not even her own fingers had managed to get close to was unlike anything her sexual fantasies could ever have dreamt of. Not that she had that much fantasies involving such a situation, in fact the only time it had crossed her mind was a couple of days ago, but she had given it a bit of though during the bath when she washed Brian's back.

As Blanc increased the speed of her movements the young man she was riding made his move, he broke away from the CPU's lips and started to kiss his way down to her breast, he was delighted that she shivered slightly whenever his lips made contact with her soft skin. When the young man reached her right breast he seductively licked around the base of the nipple while his right hand twisted and rubbed the other breast, the Ancient enjoyed the moans that escaped from Blanc vocal cords. Just as he nibbled away at the CPU's breasts she slammed down on his cock with extreme force, resulting in the CPU herself to cry out in a loud moan while Brian emitted hos own moan, clearly enjoying it as Blanc resumed to slam up and down with swift motions on his dick. She was beginning to reach another climatic orgasm when the young man felt his cock penetrate her womb, he looked at Blanc to see her barely able to contain her own pleasure.

"AHA~" Blanc cried out as she reached her climax, her juices coating Brian's dick thoroughly as he began to slow down his own thrusts. As the Lowean CPU caught her breath she was swiftly lifted off Brian and thrown onto the bed on her back, she looked over at the young man to see him on top of her with the tip of his phallus rubbing against her lower lips once. Without a second delay the Ancient slammed his cock into Blanc's vagina, the goddess cried out at first before her moaning kicked in as each of Brian's thrusts dug deeper and deeper into her.

"Oooo… Brian… Brian..." Blanc muttered as if she was out of breath, her legs wrapped around the young man's back and her hands connected with his, their fingers intertwined after Brian played around with her breasts again. "Ooo… fuck… fuck me…"

"Heh, I didn't know you could talk dirty like that," Brian said with ragged breath.

Blanc smiled and let out a seductive moan as Brian slammed his dick further in Blanc until he reached her womb once more, the Lowean CPU tightened her hold on the young man as she felt her womb be pierced, her cry of ecstasy flowed into Brian's right ear as he lowered his body down until Blanc's nipples were brushing against his chest and his lover's head was up against his right ear. Blanc's vaginal walls tightened around his cock, forcing his thrusts to be more swift as he slammed forward, grunting and moaning along the way. Eventually Brian could feel the sensation building up in his cock again, he glanced over at Blanc and whispered into her ear. "Sorry, Blanc… but I have to cum."

The Lowean goddess smirked and whispered back. "It's okay, give me everything you have… Brian~"

The Ancient grinned and slammed his cock firmly all the way through Blanc's vagina, he ejaculated his seed into her and the CPU could feel his semen paint her inner walls as well as strands of it flowing up her tubes and into her womb, she happily sighed with relief and held onto Brian as his cock continued to spurt out cum into her. But it was not over. Blanc could feel that Brian's dick was still hard and she was not yet out of energy to spend, with a grin she removed herself off the young man and stood up off the bed near the wall, then an almost blinding flash of light enveloped Blanc for a few seconds to reveal White Heart in her place. The transformed CPU was utterly naked and her pussy was still wet from all the action that previously happened.

"We ain't over just yet," White Heart informed the young man, grinning as she did so. "I've still got a lot of energy to get rid of, so then…" the CPU turned around and bent over slightly, exposing her dripping vagina to Brian as she pressed herself against the wall, she wiggled her butt around and smirked mischievously. "Come and get some, handsome~"

Brian needed no further encouragement, he leapt off the bed, grabbed White Heart around the waist and slammed his hard cock into her pussy with a swift thrust. Just like in her human form, White Heart's inner walls contracted around the young man's penis, sending bolts of utmost pleasure to his mind. _She's still pretty tight just like in human form, well that doesn't bother me in the slightest. I just hope that I have enough energy to keep up with her. I had no idea Blanc could get like this,_ _but I'm not gonna complain_ _._ Brian thought as his thrust penetrated deep into White Heart while one of his hands crept up her soft skin until it reached her left nipple, then he began to play with it to his hearts content. The wet slapping of flesh against flesh echoed through the room as Brian hips made constant contact with the CPU's buttocks, the soft and seductive moaning from White Heart was driving Brian over the edge.

"Oh fuck… fuck fuck fuck! Oooo Brian, you're fucking great! Fuck me!" White Heart exclaimed as the young Ancient began to nibble away at her right ear while his other hand made short work on the Lowean CPU's other breast, eventually Brian flipped White Heart around to her side and began to suck away at her tender right breast. "Heh, you're such a baby."

Brian looked up and grinned. "Can't help it if it's you."

White Heart smiled passionately at her lover and clasped a hand on his face as he continued to thrust in and out of her. "How did a girl like me manage to get lucky and find someone like you?" she asked.

"I don't know, but I would say the same about you." He leaned down and pressed his lips against the Lowean CPU's lip, her arms snaked around the back of his neck and their tongues danced in each others mouths as they moaned away, both giving in to their desires.

As Brian penetrated up as far as he could the Lowean CPU cried out and a jet load of her nectar sprang forth, coating the young man's cock as well as his pelvis, but as soon as White Heart had regained her breath from her eruptive orgasm she looked over at Brian and glared at him. "Why didn't you cum?" she demanded to know as she got off Brian's rod.

"Um… well, I just didn't feel like it," Brian replied nervously, he had no idea that the Lowean CPU could get like this when her primal instincts took over her senses. Suddenly the young Ancient was pushed to the ground and onto his back with a loud thud, when he looked up he saw White Heart kneeling down on him as she clasped her right hand firmly around his cock.

"We ain't done till I'm out of energy, and who knows how long that'll take. So stay still and do as I tell you to," White Heart informed the young man with a wicked grin before lunging her head down and taking in all of the young man's dick. She bobbed her head up and down and would wrap her tongue around the shaft and tip, savouring the taste of whatever was on it, whether it was her own juices or Brian's leftover cum. Not that Brian would complain, he groaned in pleasure as White Heart sucked away at her favourite meal of the day. "You taste pretty good, Bri-Bri."

"Don't call me tha—ah!" Brian exclaimed loudly as took his cock out of her mouth and grabbed it tightly, almost cutting off the circulation. Then, to his surprise – yet overall a rather positive stimulus – the CPU fondled with the young Ancient's testicles before taking them into her mouth, she moaned and suckled away on her new treat while simultaneously stroking Brian's hardened manhood up and down, she glanced up at him and smirked.

"Having fun?" she asked, clearly enjoying it all. When Brian nodded while gritting his teeth, attempting to stop himself from unleashing a loud moan that could very well be heard all across the place, the CPU of Lowee grinned. "I thought so. Now, I'm getting tired, let's finish this off. I want you inside me again~"

White Heart got on top of the young man and plunged downward, his cock pierced through her moist pussy and the inner walls tightened around the hardened rod of flesh, the CPU smirked at Brian before she started to move up and down in cowgirl position, her hands gripped onto his waist as she bounced up and down. From what the young man could see he believed he saw a little bit of jiggle physics with the CPU's transformed breasts, they were still considerably small but the Ancient thought he could see a little bit of movement. "Hey, Blanc, I… ugh… I think I can see a tiny bit of some jiggle physics with your HDD tits," Brian pointed out, grunting halfway due to the CPU's movements.

"What? Don't you like it or something?" White Heart asked, her eyes narrowing at him.

He shook his head. "Does it matter?" The Ancient then grabbed White Heart's shoulders and pulled the CPU of Lowee down towards him, locking lips with her as he began swiftly thrusting his dick into the Lowean CPU. When their lips parted a strand of saliva connected the two together for a moment. "Blanc, I'm sorry but I'm getting tired," Brian informed the CPU as his hands snaked around her back.

"Yeah, guess I'm starting to get tired too. How 'bout we have one last round before we call it quits?" she suggested, when the young man nodded she grinned and grabbed hold of his shoulders before resuming to move up and down the young man's cock. Brian snaked his hands down the CPU's back until they reached her butt, his hands took hold of each butt cheek and gave a gentle squeeze, White Heart growled seductively and began to lick Brian left ear, her tongue made its way inside the ear and explored it. The young man responded by using his hands on White Heart's buttocks to push her down forcefully upon his cock, making it pierce deeper within her which sent her into a frenzy. White Heart moaned loudly and kept crying out Brian's name.

"Brian… Brian… ooooo, Brian… oh fuck…" White Heart moaned enticingly into Brian's ear, quickening her motions as she did this. "I love you… I love you I love you I love you I love you!"

"I love you too, Blanc, and I always will, no matter what happens." As he gave White Heart's butt a gentle squeeze as he continued to push her up and down, keeping in rhythm with her own movements, he began to feel another orgasm approaching. Brian's cock started to throb with anticipation and White Heart felt it as it penetrated through her womb, with a cocky grin she leaned her head next to Brian's ear and whispered into it.

"Go on then, fill me up like you wanna make me pregnant," White Heart whispered seductively into Brian's left ear. The result was just as she had expected. The young Ancient slammed his cock firmly all the way into White Heart and ejaculated his seed into her as she let out a cry full of sexual pleasure as she unleashed her final orgasm, this time there was a lot more cum than either of them were expecting. Strands of white semen flowed out from the CPU's wet, dripping vagina and onto Brian's pelvis and the floor, White Heart could feel that her nether region was filled to the brim with Brian's seed, from her vaginal walls to her womb she could feel it all. She smiled and collapsed onto Brian, his dick – now starting to grow limb – remained inside of her.

The young man held onto White Heart's arms and glanced down at her face, he noticed how peaceful she was with all that happened. "Hey, Blanc, are you alright?" Brian asked, hoping that he did not go overboard.

The Lowean CPU looked up at him and chuckled. "No need to worry about me, I'm fine. No, more than that, I'm feeling better than ever." She rubbed Brian's head and smiled at the Ancient. "Heh, I had no idea that just telling you to fill up my womb to make me pregnant would release that much into me, guess you really want to be a father after all."

"What? No, it isn't like that, Blanc. It's just… well, I couldn't help it, you were talking dirty and all. Anyway, you were the one who wanted to be filled up like that, not to mention that you took precautions beforehand, you already told me that."

White Heart giggled and removed herself off Brian's cock, she laid down next to the young man and stared at him. "Hey, Brian, what would happen if I did get pregnant? Hypothetically speaking of course."

Brian scratched his chin thoughtfully for a moment before returning his gaze to White Heart with a smile on his face. "I would take responsibility and do my best in raising our child, that is what I would do if it ever occurred."

The Lowean CPU chuckled and snuggled against the young man, her arms wrapped around him as she rested her head on his chest. "That's what I thought you would say, although if I were to have asked you that during the early moments when he first met I think I would have got a different reply. You have changed, Brian, you're not the same person I once knew all that time ago."

The young Ancient patted White Heart gently on the head affectionately. "Yeah, Angel said something similar during our visit to R-18 Island. I guess he was right all along, though I wont admit that to his face." After White Heart chuckled in response the young man stood up weakly and almost fell over before he caught his bearings, once done he picked up the Lowean CPU and placed her underneath the bedsheets of his bed, he got in after her and laid down next to the blue haired goddess, who was now almost too tired to talk properly. "Sleep in my room for the night, hopefully we can explain ourselves in the morning if necessary."

White Heart closed her eyes and attached herself to Brian, their naked bodies giving each other considerable warmth. "Happy birthday, Brian," the Lowean CPU said, smiling as she did so.

"Um, sorry but that was yesterday, it's almost one in the morning already," Brian informed the small goddess, much to her annoyance. "But regardless, thank you, Blanc. It's been the best birthday I have ever had, or remembered."

White Heart smiled one last time before drifting to sleep, her head rested on Brian's chest while her arms were wrapped around his body, the young man smiled wrapped his arms around White Heart as he began to fall into a peaceful sleep. The Ancient kissed her forehead before resting his head against the white pillow, his face sinking into it. The Lowee Basilicom drifted once more into silence, but for those guards who remained vigilant and aware they could only wonder what the moaning and grunting sounds were and where they were coming from, for those guards it was a mystery that was never to be answered.

* * *

 **A/N: Whew, finally got his done ahead of schedule, originally I thought it would have taken me two weeks to complete it but it seems that is not the case – well, obviously, this chapter is out after all. Did I do a better job with his lemon rather than the Angel x Plutia lemon? I certainly like to think that I have slightly improved. The next several chapters will be serious as it will lead to the ending of this story and explain some more of the lore that I have intertwined with the Hyperdimension. No spoilers, but I'll let you readers guess what is going to go down in the next few chapters. Have a great day readers and I hope to be out with another chapter by next week.**

 **Guest – I too think it would be interesting to see Blanc and Brian have a kid, I made a small reference to that review in the chapter after they finished having… yeah. It might be something I can play around with in the sequel, maybe, but for now it's off the table until then.**


	60. Gehaburn

**Chapter 59: Gehaburn**

 _The wind blew heavily through the woodlands, the trees swayed with the direction of the breeze and leaves flew up into the air and back down onto the ground, nothing else moved as no signs of life were around for miles and miles. At first at least. The silence was broken by two young children who ran out of the dense forest and into a grassy plain filled with bushes, sparse trees and an open field in the centre. They laughed and frolicked about, paying no heed to their surroundings. The child who was in the lead was a young girl with shortish black hair, blue eyes and a cheery expression, she was wearing a dark blue shirt, brown pants that were rolled up to her knees, leather strapped shoes and a black coat was wrapped around her waist, a gold necklace with a white gem in the centre hung around her neck._

 _The second child who was struggling to catch up with her was a young boy who appeared to be around the same age as the girl – which was around seven to eight years. He had brown hair, brown eyes and a nervous twitch with his fingers, he wore a light blue shirt, dark grey pants, hardened boots and a faded green coat – his sense of fashion was far fetched and odd. He struggled to catch up with his friend and ended up falling over a tree root, the young boy fell to the ground face first and with a mouth full of dirt. He weakly got to his knees and spat out the dirt before wiping his face clean. "Ah damn it, not again," he muttered to himself, cursing his clumsiness and lack of strength._

 _The young girl stopped running and looked back to see the boy on his knees with a depressed look across his face, she skipped up to him and smiled brightly at him, causing the young boy to blush slightly and glance away. "Come on, there's no time for resting," she told him, waving her arms around energetically. "There's a pack of dogoos nearby that have made a home for themselves, I want to check it out! Come on, get up already."_

" _You know I don't have the same amount of stamina as you do, I can barely last a few minutes of running without having a heart attack. Besides, what so important about seeing these dogoos? Aren't they suppose to be perverts? I thought you hated those kind of creatures."_

" _They look absolutely adorable, I just_ have _to see what they do in their spare time, and because of that I can disregard their pervertedness. Come on, get up and hurry, I doubt your parents are going to like us being out here once they find out." The young girl ran off further into the woodlands without the boy, leaving him on the grassy plains to regain his breath._

" _W-Wait for me, Claudia!" the boy called out loudly as he got up onto his feet, he leaned up against a tree, his breathing was ragged and heavy. As soon as he stood up straight off the tree he ran after his friend, hoping to catch up with Claudia quickly before something happened to her, she did have a reputation of getting herself into trouble whether it involved causing pranks or watching soldiers fighting it out in pitch and bloody battles._

 _The boy arrived in the centre of the deepest part of the forest and looked around him, but much to his dismay he saw no sign of Claudia anywhere. "Claudia! Claudia! Where are you?" the boy called out, his bellowing through the air and echoing through the dense forest. "Damn it, where is she?"_

 _He sighed and continued to run forward through the forest, hoping to find her somewhere ahead, but much to his disappointment he failed to see her. That was until the boy heard a girl-like scream coming from his right, he quickly turned around and ran in the direction of the sound, hoping to get there in time before something bad happened. As he dashed through the bushes and past the dense trees the young boy came into a clearing to see the black haired girl being attacked by a group of four dogoos, she was on the ground covered in slime from head to toe, one of the slime beasts was attempting to get underneath her shirt while another was on her head, the other two had her surrounded. Gritting his teeth and clenching the handle of a curved dagger hidden in his cloak the young boy leapt forward, brandishing his curved dagger and clenching his left fist tightly._

" _Get off her!" the boy yelled_ _furiously, he slashed his dagger through one of the dogoos, failing to kill it, before punching another, his left fist was caught in the monster's body_ _and he had immense difficulty in getting it out again. "Oh come on! Just let go of me already you damn slime beast!"_

 _The dogoos converged on the young boy, one wrapped itself around his feet while another jumped off Claudia and onto his gut, covering the front half of his body in slime, the third and fourth took turns in headbutting the boy's kegs until he fell to the ground with a thud._ _Before the boy could try to get up again the four dogoos began to attack, they covered him in slime and one even covered his face, preventing him from breathing. The young boy did his best in getting the dogoo off his face, but to his anger and disappointment he failed._ _As his eyes began to close and life disappeared from his body he noticed one of the dogoos resuming its attacks on the young girl, he would have sighed but his opponent prevented him from doing so._

 _It came as a huge surprise when he was finally able to breath again, his eyes opened suddenly as air refilled his lungs, the dogoo that had been on his face was flying across the field and into a tree, the boy noticed a large spike made of ice sticking out of the monster's body before it disappeared into pixels._ _The boy turned around swiftly to see an old man with a tall, wooden sta_ _f_ _f in his right hand standing tall behind him, the palm of his left hand was pointing to where the dogoo had previously been. The old man had a long, white beard_ _and a ragged grey cloak with a hood, the cloak covered most of his body, he also wore weather-worn leather boots, his cold green eyes_ _pierced through the boy's soul as he stared at the slimy enemy._ _The old man walked slowly towards the three remaining dogoos, who had by now turned their full attention towards him, the old man gripped his staff firmly with his two hands and got into a defensive position._

 _The three dogoos surrounded the old man and pounced at him at the same time as an icy mist began to form around him._ _"_ _ **Rotating Ice Slash!**_ _" the old man shouted as his staff became covered in ice, as he swung around his image became distorted,_ _he_ _appeared to be in several places yet not in them at the same time, ice flowed all around the area as the three remaining dogoos were hacked and slashed by shards of ice that came out of the rotation circle._ _When everything returned to normal the three dogoos were dead and the old man was back to standing still with his staff in his right hand. "Phew, that took a lot out of me than usual, guess I'm not in shape after all. Regardless, are you two alright?"_

 _Claudia had gotten onto her knees and was next to the young boy. "Yeah, we're better. Thanks a lot."_

 _The old man sighed in relief as he approached the two of them, he kneeled down and lightly knocked the two of them on the heads with his free hand. "You two can be so stupid sometimes, wandering off into the forest when you know there's a war occurring just outside our doorstep._ _Virtua Forest is not safe anymore, whether it is because of enemy soldiers trying to find our hidden village or because of the increased number of monsters around. Now come on, no more of this in the future, let's get back home." The old man smiled at the two children before getting back onto his fee_ _t._

 _Claudia looked over at the young boy and smiled at him. "Hey, thanks for trying to save me from those dogoos, it means a lot to me."_

" _But I failed in that task. Heck, I even fail at everything for that matter, I can't see why you're still friends with me." The boy_ _got up alongside the girl and sighed depressingly_ _as he placed his curved dagger in his cloak again_ _._

 _S_ _uddenly Claudia clasped her right hand with his left and leaned forward,_ _her lips made contact with his left cheek for a second before she leaned back, the young girl giggled a_ _s_ _she saw how red the boy's face was. She started to walk off after the old man with the young boy in tow, their hands still in contact, when she looked back_ _at the boy she smiled brightly._ _"You're special to me, so I will never let_ _you be alone. Come on, let's go home and play some chess,_ _Afagddu."_

* * *

"… Afagddu… Afagddu… eh? What?" Brian stirred out of his sleep and shook his head, the fuzzy feeling in his mind started to drift away as his eyesight came back into viewing, he looked down to see a stack of paperwork underneath where he had rested his face. "The hell… did I drift of to sleep? Damn, Mina is going to have my hide for this."

The young man sighed and looked around the table for his pen, he found it buried in a pile of signed paperwork to his right, he retrieved it and then his short term memory issue kicked in. "Now then, what was I doing again? Oh, that's right, signing paperwork with Mina."

Brian was sitting on a white glazed chair in front of a desk covered in piles of paperwork and a computer tucked away in the corner, a bookshelf was against the entire back wall and was filled with all manner of books and folders. The young man was sitting on opposite side of the desk with pen in hand and a bored expression on his face, he had attempted to divide the paperwork into two piles, one for those that had been signed and another waiting to be signed. Altogether it was a boring job, but Brian had promised Mina that he would help with the workload, although he did question why Blanc was not doing anything. According to Mina the reason was: "Lady Blanc does not feel the need to sign paperwork when she is too busy with other matters". The Ancient then, to his own dismay and shock, requested to help the overworked Oracle of Lowee by completing the paperwork alongside her before resuming his time with helping Blanc.

The young Ancient glanced around after he signed a few more pieces of paper, he was hoping to see Mina around somewhere but there was no sign of her at all. "Ah come on, and here I thought it was supposed to be the two of us trying to finish all of this damn paperwork," Brian groaned as he leaned forward in his chair, as he did so the young man heard someone enter the office.

"Hmm? Are you alright, Brian?" asked a womanly voice filled with concern.

The Ancient looked up to see the blue haired, glasses wearing oracle enter her office, she was carrying a tray with two cups of hot, steaming tea and a plate filled with a large assortment of biscuits. Mina smiled at Brian as she sat down at her end of the desk and placed the tray next to her and the young man. It took a short moment for Brian to respond to Mina's original question. "Yeah, I'm fine, just a bit tired is all," Brian replied as he grabbed a cup of tea and a biscuit."

"That's good to hear, although you have been a lot more tired for the last few days. Say, would you happen to know anything about the loud noises that were heard around a week ago? The guards have failed to find anything regarding it."

To Mina's surprise the young man glanced away and blushed slightly. "N-N-No, no I don't, I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Is that so? Then why are you blushing?" Mina raised her eyebrow suspiciously, suspecting that the young man knew something.

"W-Well, it's just… er, n-nothing, nothing at all. It was probably just some squeaky pipes or something." For some reason the young Ancient heard someone sniggering in his mind, it sounded like Bellona sniggering away for some reason. _Heh, guess we are connected after all, by both merging together_ _and the Sharicite being fuelled by me all that time ago. Regardless, all I can hope is that Mina doesn't pick up the fact that me and Blanc had_ _sex_ _– ain't complaining about that_ _event_ _though._

"Well, if you insist, I trust you." Mina looked back at her tea and began to drink away while getting ready to sign paperwork. "Do you like the tea?"

Brian nodded after he took a sip. "Yep, I like it."

Mina sighed with relief. "That's good to hear, I made it myself with a bit of help with Lady Blanc, she insisted that you would like the flavour."

"Well she's got that right, I'm liking it despite preferring to drink coffee, hot or iced. Speaking of which, how is Blanc going?"

"She's going well, although she wants us to hurry up with all of the paperwork so the two of you can go back to her room to continue planning her next novel. Sounds like you have got a lot going on so far, I hope the two of you remain happy and stay safe. So I guess that means the two of you are going really well in your relationship?"

Brian smiled, remembering his time with Blanc throughout his entire adventure in Gamindustri. "It's more than that, I think the two of us are going better than ever, I never been this happy before. I guess you could say that I feel reborn in a way."

"That's good to hear, I'm glad that you and Lady Blanc are having a great time together. To be honest, when the Candidates informed me that their older sister had fallen in love with you I had my doubts, sure you were a good person – or at least tried to be – and you were utterly polite towards her but I thought that you would do more harm than good. I'm glad that I was proven wrong."

"Heh, my pleasure. You know, it's funny, I never thought that I would meet someone like her, I'm glad that I was proven wrong. Meeting and falling for Blanc was the best thing that ever happened to me. I guess that's one thing I can thank Wraith for after all it seems." The young Ancient sipped some more of his tea before resuming to sign paperwork at a quick rate, Mina guessed – correctly – that the young man was eager to get back to Blanc and continue with planning out their novel, from what the Oracle had heard it was going to be, in the words of Blanc:"epic and exciting, a story that will win any novelist award in Lowee".

As the two of them silently sipped their tea, ate the biscuits and signed the paperwork that sprawled before them after what seemed like hours they heard something. It was the sound of someone shouting and cursing everything and everyone around them, then came the sounds of things being smashed and the walls of the Basilicom began to shake and quake. Brian sighed and stood up out of his seat after drinking the last of his tea. "Sounds like Blanc, or should I say White Heart, is having a temper tantrum. I guess Rom and Ram must have done something to anger again," Brian explained calmly, as if he was use to it. "This might take a while I'm afraid, Mina, I think you might have to do the rest of the paperwork yourself. Is that okay with you?"

The blue haired Oracle smiled and waved her hand absent-mindedly. "It's alright, Brian, I can handle things from here, we did most of the paperwork already anyway. You do what you have to do, good luck."

The young man smiled and stuck his thumb up as he jogged out of the office and into the hallway, his shadow disappeared not long afterwards when Mina stopped hearing the sounds of his footsteps. She turned back to her paperwork and continued to sign away as she finished the last of her tea. _Brian really has changed, he isn't the same young man_ _that first came to Lowee all that time ago._ _I guess being exposed to Lady Blanc has done some good to him after all. Still, I wish he would help her control that fiery temper, and vice versa._ _Even so, there's still something not right about him, it's as if a darkness_ _is surrounding him despite all that's happened. He may be good now, but what's to say that cannot be turned around?_

* * *

"Grrrraaaaggh! Damn you both! Brats!" White Heart shouted as she swung her mighty axe around her, destroying all manner of objects and slashing deep marks across the wall, a shadow was over her face and one of her eyes glaring at all things with immense wrath. Her anger was directed at her younger sisters… again. "Get back here you bastards! I ain't through with you yet! You're both gonna pay dearly for messing up me and Brian's notes!"

Rom and Ram, who were running down the hallway swiftly, looked back and could not help but giggle – at least Ram did, Rom felt a tinge of guilt however when she heard her older sister mention the young man's name. Ram merely laughed and continued to run, the Candidate looked over to her sister to see her starting to slow down, she grabbed hold of her twin sister's wrist and took off again quickly as White Heart came crashing through the hallway. The vengeful CPU of Lowee glared at her younger sisters and grinned malevolently. "There you two are, get ready for a spanking you never would have imagined existed. Get your asses ready, you damn brats," White Heart growled as she began to run towards her sisters.

Ram yelped and ran as quickly as she could while continuing to hold onto Rom's wrist, the shyer CPU Candidate was utterly frightened so it was left to the troublemaker to get herself and her twin sister out of their older sister's wrath range, but her hopes were cut short as soon as she ran towards a dead end. "Oh crap," Ram muttered as she turned around to see White Heart glaring down at them.

"Heh, what's wrong? Can't run away now can you? Prepare yourselves!" the senior CPU yelled as she prepared to charge, a glint of bloodlust was evident in her eyes. As White Heart gripped her two-handed axe tightly and began to rush forward a voice called out behind her.

"Hold up, Blanc, there's no need to get violent," a male voice called out behind her. White Heart stopped running and looked around to see Brian holding a plate filled with something edibleclose to his chest, he was staring at the rage filled CPU and her little sisters with concern. "What's going on? Mina and I could hear shouting from her office."

"These damn bastards found our notes and have been drawing all over 'em," White Heart explained, her anger refusing to subside.

Brian's right eyelid twitched as well as a few fingers. "Is that so? Well then, let me take care of the problem."

Rom and Ram gulped in fear as the young Ancient approached them, they both knew that pissing off Blanc was one thing, but simply annoying Brian was a different matter all together. To piss Brian off was the equivalent setting off a nuclear bomb – unpredictable and deadly. But to their surprise the young man sighed and gently knocked them on the head with his right fist as he shook his head. "Dammit you two," Brian sighed as he stood back. "Those notes were very important to me and Blanc if you had not already guessed. The two of us had been writing up ideas for our novel for over a week in that notebook, and I can understand why Blanc is so… er, 'upset'. I'll let you two go, but if this happens again then I will not be as merciful."

"Oh come on, we all know that the real reason you won't punish us is because you think we're too adorable," Ram giggled as she teased the young man.

Brian sighed and scratched his head. "Yeah, that the second reason I guess. Anyway, just remember not to do it again, or else." The Ancient's eye flared up with Share Energy as he said this.

The Candidates of Lowee nodded quickly and ran off down the hallway from where they came, despite being scolded they sounded rather relieved and even a bit happy about being let off. The young man sighed and turned his attention towards White Heart, who was still getting over her rage. "The hell, Brian? Why did you let them off?" White Heart asked him.

"It just isn't worth the energy, besides, just seeing me getting angry would be enough to encourage good behaviour from them." Brian turned his full attention towards White Heart, the plate he was holding with his left hand was lifted over to the CPU, when she looked at it her eyes lit up. "Care for some tangerines? They're fresh from the kitchen."

The Lowean CPU stared sternly at the tangerines for a short moment before grabbing one and shoving it into her mouth, her teeth clasped through the fruit and her expression turned from a grumpy look to one filled with joy as she ate the small piece of tangerine. The young man chuckled and patted White Heart on the head. "Well look at that, you're all calmed down now, and all it took was just a piece of tangerine to do the trick," the Ancient said as he chuckled, the response he received from the CPU was a light punch to his left shoulder.

"Whatever, smooth talker. Come on, we've gotta start rewriting all those notes," White Heart said to him as she grabbed his right hand and took off down the hallway towards her room, the young man almost dropped the plate of tangerines due to the speed that the CPU was running at. After a few minutes they arrived in White Heart's room where the young man noticed a large amount of books laying all across the ground with crayon scribbled all over the pages, he sighed as he saw the large and deep marks on the wall and in the ground – all caused by Blanc's hammer and her axe after transforming. Brian sighed and sat down on the chair in front of the Lowean CPU's desk, placed the plate of tangerines on the wooden structureand peered at the notes that they had been taking for the last week, to his disappointment Rom and Ram had indeed scribbled all over the notes.

"Well then, this is going to be difficult," Brian grumbled as he gathered the notes. "It took us a while just to even come up with the good ones."

"Now do you see my point?" White Heart asked as she stood next to the Ancient. "I guess it doesn't matter now, we'll have to start again from scratch."

"Um, Blanc, are you going to stay in that from for a while?"

White Heart raised an eyebrow as she looked down at the young man. "Why are you asking? Don't tell me you don't like it when I'm in HDD, I seem to remember you clinging onto me after we had sex."

Brian blushed and glanced away, he scratched the back of his head and appeared rather embarrassed. "W-Well, no, that's not it at all. In fact I love it when you transform. I was just wondering if staying in that form would tire you out is all."

White Heart giggled and sat in between Brian's legs, she looked back at him to see the young Ancient blushing madly. "Heh, you're all embarrassed, I think it looks cute. And don't worry about me, I'll be fine in this form, besides, me being like this allows me to vent all of my frustrations with ease." She grabbed a new notebook next to her and took hold of two pens, one for herself and one for Brian. "Let's get cracking, we've got a lot to catch up on."

After what seemed like a few hours – in fact time had passed so much that the nearby, soundless, clock read '3:12 pm' – the day had begun to already de away as the sun passed on through the bright yet mildly cloudy Lowean sky, all throughout the Basilicom things seemed very quiet, which White Heart and Brian found to be exceptionally great. The two of them had worked double time to come up with new ideas for their combined novel, some were good and others were left to the dustbin of history. They had been working non-stop without break, and Brian wanted a break badly. As he shuffled his form back into the chair after straightening his back whilst sitting down he felt the Lowean CPU also shuffling around, trying to get comfortable, but what was happening made the young man question the CPU's mind whenever she would be in HDD.

As White Heart was wiggling around her butt began to stroke against Brian's groin, whether it was intentional or not was hard to say, White Heart was unpredictable at times o her mind could have been intentionally doing it while also not trying to do so. Nonetheless, it got a reaction that was predictable. Brian got an erection, his hardened member rubbed against White Heart's butt through the clothes that separated the two, the Lowean CPU moaned and looked back at Brian with a devious grin as she began to move up and down slowly.

"Heh, so you do like my butt after all, especially when I'm in HDD," White Heart said as her grin widened and her hands gripped the chair's sides.

The young Ancient looked back at White Heart, embarrassed yet also aroused. "Well, what can I say, your butt stands out after you've gone into HDD mode. I can't help it if I do like it, your HDD outfit makes it stand out."

"So, a boobs and butts man eh? Interesting… I might have fun with this." The Lowean CPU twisted around so she was facing Brian, her arms were wrapped around his back while she positioned herself on his groin where his rod was rubbing against her uniform that protected her nether region and butt. "How 'bout we make this interesting, just for an hour or two? Hehehehehehe…" As White Heart and Brian locked lips passionately the young man wrapped one arm around the CPU's back while his free hand moved towards her butt, he gave it a gentle squeeze and felt some pleasure as White Heart moaned into his mouth.

However, their session was quickly broken by a voice calling out by the door to the room. "Oh my… er, a-am I intruding here?"

Brian and White Heart stopped what they were doing and looked over at the doorway to see Mina, the blue haired Oracle of Lowee was blushing and seemed unsure that she should be there. The Lowean CPU blushed and got off the young man while Brian straightened himself in the chair, glancing away to avoid looking at Mina due to the embarrassment of someone seeing him and White Heart get passionate. "What is it, Mina?" the CPU of Lowee asked, her tone was filled with annoyance.

"Um, well… th-there's some mail for you and Brian, plus I just got a call from Histoire. Apparently there is something going on down around Planeptune that would deeply interest Brian," Mina explained as best she could, attempting to ignore the glare that came from White Heart. The Oracle then disappeared for a short moment before returning with a few letters and a huge sword-like parcel, she placed the letters on the desk and the sword-like parcel against the desk. "That's about it, er… bye and sorry for intruding."

As Mina walked off in a hurried the Lowean CPU sighed and glowed brightly, within a few seconds she had reverted back to human form. Blanc looked over at Brian and blushed madly as the memory of what she was doing came back to her. "Um… s-sorry about that, I kinda get a bit more, er… energised when I transform," Blanc apologised to the young Ancient, blushing as she did so.

"There's no need to apologise, it's okay, Blanc," Brian told the CPU. "Besides, we've, er… well, you know, did 'it' so I guess something like this was going to occur."

"I-I guess so." Blanc smiled and returned to Brian's side and began to look through the letters that Mina had given them. "Hmm, most of these seem to be for me, there's one for you as well as that weird parcel thing. We'll deal with these first before heading off to Planeptune to see what Histoire wants."

Brian nodded and opened the letter addresses to him, though he was surprised to even get any mail at all, but once he opened it and began to read it he soon realised who it was from. The young Ancient chuckled as he finished reading it, catching Blanc's attention as she finished reading one of the letters addressed to her. "Hmm? What's wrong, Brian?" Blanc asked.

"No, nothing's wrong. Just take a look at it." He then held the piece of paper over towards her, the Lowean CPU took the letter and gazed at it, the words looked as if a young kid had wrote them in a hurry but the CPU was able to understand it all, the letter read:

" _To Brian the Shadow Walker_

 _It's been a while since we last talked, I'm not sure how long ago it was but it's been_ _a long time._ _Anyway,_ _I've finally gathered the courage to write a letter to you,_ _I heard that you were back in Lowee so I thought that this was a good idea._ _People all throughout Gamindustri may hate you or may fear you, but there are some who do look up to you, I'm one of them._

 _I hope you are living well in the Lowee Basilicom and are slaying tons and tons of monsters – that's what I want to be when I grow up: a monster slayer._ _I hope you have a great time in Lowee,_ _maybe we will see each other again, but I doubt it, my parents have mixed opinions about you._

 _Be_ _well,_ _good luck_ _and stay cool_ _,_

 _Gregory"_

Blanc smiled and gave the letter back to Brian as she ate another piece of the tangerine that Brian had cut up in the kitchen. "Sounds like you've got a fan, never knew you had one at all."

"He isn't a fan, he's just someone \who admires me for whatever reason." Brian sighed and chuckled. "Heh, I almost forgot about him till just now."

"When did you two meet? And how old is this guy?"

"Hmm, let me think… ah yes, Gregory is around, er, well, he looks to be around the physical age of Rom and Ram, so I'm guessing between eight and thirteen. We meet during our first date in the library when we were looking for a book to give to each other, he came up behind me and introduced himself. The kid sounded kinda shy and he reminded me of Rom in a way – shy, kind of timid yet full of hope."

"Sounds like an interesting kid. Now come on, open the parcel, I want to see what you got." Blanc grabbed the sword shaped parcel and handed it over to the young man, the CPU noted how the object was mildly heavy. "Tch, who in their right mind would send something like this? Open it and let's take a look."

Brian nodded and began to unwrap the parcel, tearing off sticky tape and wrapping paper alike, when he tore the top half away he was met with a strange sight. The Ancient was staring at dull purple and pinkish blade, it appeared to have once been bright with a dark purple-like glow to it but now it looked as if it had been languishing in some gods-forsaken basement for centuries without sunlight. As Brian ripped off the last of the wrapping paper a letter fell to the floor, which Blanc picked up and began to read, while the young man gazed at the rest of the sword. A thin blue crystal was in the centre of the hilt between the blade and the handle, a small purplish-pink crystal was positioned lower to the blue crystal, the hilt was made up of a dark purple colour and could be firmly held with either one hand or two hands. The strange sword was the tallest that he had seen since Angel two-handed longsword.

Blanc stared at the sword sternly and a displeased look appeared across her face. "I don't like the look or feeling of that sword, it just isn't right."

"Yeah, it does sense kinda weird, as if it is filled with darkness or something like it. Funny, it looks like something Nepgear would use," Brian agreed with the CPU as he held the sword by the blade, staring at the odd weapon with curiosity, a light chuckle followed afterwards as he thought of Nepgear wielding such a weird blade in combat. "What does the letter say? Does it shed some light about this thing?"

The Lowean CPU looked at the letter and gave it to the young Ancient, he took it in one hand and looked at it, the letter read: "To the Shadow Walker. From a friend". The young man raised an eyebrow at the letter and could only question who wrote the letter and sent the sword. "I don't recognise the handwriting, it does not strike a note to my memory. Do you recognise it, Blanc?" Brian asked the goddess.

She shook her head in response. "No, afraid not. But whoever sent it appeared to be in a hurry, their handwriting is dodgy and the wrapping around the sword was done in a rush. Should we send it back to the post office and see what they say?"

The young Ancient shook his head. "I think Histoire might know what the hell this blade is, and why it feels so strange. I guess that gives us a second reason to head over to Planeptune and see what that tome fairy wants. I'll head over to my room and grab my coat and hat, I suspect that whatever Histoire wants to tell and show us will take up a lot of our time so we should take our novel notes as well."

Blanc nodded and began to gather their new notes while the young man picked up his letters and the sword as he left the CPU's room, as he walked down the hallway towards his room he felt something, something odd and out of place. He looked down to the sword he was holding by the hilt in his right hand, to his shock the blade was dimly glowing in a dark purple colour, it would shine bright for a few seconds before loosing all colour, then it would start all over again. IT was as if the sword was starting to come to life. As Brian entered his room and set the letter down on his desk he peered at the sword with wonder, but as he did so the blade began to shine brightly, dark purple lit the room for a short moment before dimming down, but the blade continued to glow brightly.

"What the hell is wrong with this sword?" Brian asked himself. Before he placed the sword on his bed he heard voices in his head, strange voices; distant and yet so close, all of them spoke in two different languages: the Common Speech and the Ancient Tongue. For some reason the young man could understand and translate the Ancient Tongue into the modern language. Some of the ghostly, distant and strange words that the voices spoke included:

" _Die now in vain, mortal. You are not my emperor yet, boy. You lied to your men and betrayed the mercenaries_ _who_ _fought for you! What's happening to you? Is vengeance all that matters to you_ _now? You were my brother, I loved you!_ _I hate you!_ _So, have you come to piss on your father's urn one last time before he passed from memory?!_ _This empire was supposed to be mine!_ _I curse you, your name and all those who come after!_ _You will only find death in the cold, harsh lands across the Sundering Sea._ _Farewell, Afagd_ _d_ _u, until we meet in the Next World._ _Last to die goes to Oblivion! For the Ancients! For death and glory!_ _Curse the Goddess and her successors,_ _curse them all_ _!_ "

Brian stared at the sword with an awestruck look, he was both amazed and frightened by what he was hearing. _How is this possible? It's as if this blade is alive, devouring the souls of all it slays._ _It's just like a cursed sword… just like_ the _Cursed Sword of Bleddyn._ Brian thought as the blade spoke in the two languages in different voices, the souls of the dead spoke out with ghostly voices, piercing the mind of the young man. As he rubbed his head to numb the thoughts his mind was filled with one word, the sword had spoken again. _Gehaburn… Gehaburn… Gehaburn._ The young Ancient staggered back and felt a major headache break out within his mind, he growled and began to rub his temples to calm his nerves, his hands twitched and the Ancient fell to the ground. After a few minutes Brian appeared to have calmed down, his breathing had returned to normal while he had regained his footing, yet something was different about him, he could feel it. The young man felt as if he was whole again, the sword had completed him. Brian took hold of the Cursed Sword and a strange expression appeared on his face, the left side of his face was filled with disapproval and distaste while the right side of his face was filled with malice, wickedness and a look that would even make the surviving Dark Captains think twice before engaging combat with him.

"Gehaburn, eh? Interesting, so things have come full circle. The blade that was wielded by my ancestor, Bleddyn, has finally come to me. I can only wonder who sent it to me, Wraith would have given it to me in person so that means he didn't send it… bah, who cares." the young Ancient's thoughts then turned back to Blanc and the malevolent side to him died away, and so too did the sword as it turned back to its dim state. "Blanc! That's right, I gotta get my stuff and catch up with her before she starts to worry, or starts to get angry."

As the young man put on his coat and hat before grabbing Gehaburn and his other two swords, he then ran out of his room and down the hallway to catch up with the Lowean CPU and no doubt be subjected to a rough punch. However, just outside Brian's window there was the shadow of a small, floating figure floating around in the darkness of a few dense, snow clad trees. The figure appeared to be a girl, not much could be seen of her except for short, dark blonde hair and slightly tanned skin, she was also really small and was resting on top of a floating open book. The strange person grinned as Brian ran out of his room with his Roman Gladius and Armas Mecha Sword strapped to his belt while Gehaburn was strapped to his back by the belt that carried his remaining throwing knives.

"Heh, things are getting interesting, glad I had time to post that damn thing," the strange, small woman sniggered. "I wish I could stick around to see how this plays out but I gotta get outta here, don't want that damn purple haired broad catching me again."

As soon as she had said that a cheery voice called out not far behind her. "Hey, wait up! Stay still while I get you back in my notebook!" From the distance it seemed as if the cheerful voice belonged to some sort of purple haired woman.

The tanned figure turned around swiftly and a look of disgust spread across her face. "Oh hell no! I ain't gonna get back in that damn thing! Stay away from me!" As the woman ran up to her, holding a purple notebook with various words inscribed on its cover – the words seemed to be a mix between the Common Speech and the Ancient Tongue – she opened it to a blank page and smiled brightly at the floating woman. The cries of distress and anger were muffled away as the dark blonde woman was surrounded by a blinding light, eventually the floating tome girl and the purple haired woman disappeared in a flash of light, leaving nothing but the swaying trees and the white snow in their place.

* * *

 ** **A/N: Well then, White Heart is pretty thirsty for Brian whenever they are around each other for too long,**** ** **I can only imagine future scenarios between the two of them if this keeps occurring.**** ** **Now that Brian is in possession of Gehaburn things aren't looking good, almost looks like he's developing a split personality due to it, but who knows.**** ** **Although an Ancient from a cursed bloodline with a cursed sword is not the best mix one could think of, goodness knows where this will end up.**** ** **If anyone has noticed then you would have all guessed who the two strangers are. Is this a reference to what is to come later on? We'll see, oh we'll see…****

 ** **Anyway,**** ** **have a good days readers if possible and good luck with anything you are doing.****


	61. The God of Gamindustri

**Chapter 60: The God of Gamindustri**

Brian covered his face to prevent the strong wind from blowing any dust into his eyes and mouth, though being high in the air prevented dust from getting onto his face in the first place anyway, he knew this but he could not control his muscles. The young man peered down and gulped as he saw the vast, grassy lands, forests and hills of Planeptune underneath him, he clung onto White Heart's arms tighter than before and did his best from looking anywhere else. The Lowean CPU sighed and shook her head as they passed by a cloud. "Seriously? You're still afraid of heights?" she asked him, she sounded disappointed in the young man despite and would have been if it was not for the cheeky grin on her face.

"I can't help it, Blanc, everyone is afraid of something you know," Brian retorted, refusing to look anywhere except for the CPU's face, which his was right next to. "I just happen to not like being this high in the sky, especially if we're practically flying _through_ the clouds!"

"Ah stop being such a cry baby." White Heart found it amusing how Brian started to pout at her. "Aww, does the cute, little baby need his bottle?"

The Ancient growled as his eyes flared up with Share Energy, when he spoke his voice was filled with malice. "Shut it, Blanc, or you will live to regret it."

The Lowean CPU stared at Brian with shock, her eyes narrowed at him and her upper teeth bit her lower lip. She realised that there was something wrong with Brian, something was not right about him, not only was be being aggressive towards her but he also appeared to be conflicted, as if something was going on in his mind. "Hey, you alright, Brian?" White Heart asked, hoping that she was wrong.

The young man shrugged as the aggressiveness in his expression faded away, leaving a guilty look on his face. "I-I'm fine, Blanc, really. Sorry about that, just a bit tired is all."

White Heart stared sternly at Brian for a short moment before sighing. "If you say so, Brian." She then looked away from the young man and stared in front of her towards the distance as Planeptune City came into view with the tip of Neptower – the highest part of the Planeptune Basilicom – rising over everything else. The Lowean goddess now new that there was something wrong with Brian and he was not going to tell her any time soon, although she questioned herself whether the young man even knew there was something going on with him.

Brian, however, knew that there was something wrong with him. Ever since he had held Gehaburn he had been feeling weird, conflicted as it were. The young man felt as if there was a battle raging within his mind for control, as if there were two personalties, two people just like himself, fighting for dominance. One looked and dressed just like himself, except this one was bright and full of energy, the other was but a mere shadow, a dark entity that may have looked like Brian but certainly did not act like his normal self, but instead acted as if he was enraged just like Brian would be like when pushed past the point of bloodlust in battle. They would fight, hoping to dominate Brian's mind. So far the light side had continued to win, especially if Brian was around Blanc.

 _Heh, now that I think about it more clearly,_ _I think that this battle within my mind has always been going on, for years, long before I even came to Gamindustri. Guess I have only just noticed it due to the damn sword. Though only why now? Why have I just started to notice this going on in my head? Split personalities… a scary thought, yet even I have it I guess, it helps explain why I'm just like a bloodthirsty beast whenever I get angry._ Brian thought as he hands began to twitch, the thought of having two personalities – one light, one dark – made him question his own sanity.

White Heart noticed the twitching and the conflicted look on his face, as a result the CPU of Lowee hugged the young man tightly and rested her chin on top of his head, Brian did not complain nor utter a single noise in response. However, as they flew through the cool Planeptune air two figures flew next to them, one had a cheeky grin while the other had a small smile plastered across their face, they appeared to be young girls and looked very similar to White Heart. "Having fun there you two?" the young looking girl with bright pink hair asked with a cheeky tone.

White Heart glanced over at to her left and smiled at the figure. "We're fine, Ram, just keep yourself safe or else you might crash into a tree, or maybe even the Neptower itself."

"I'll be fine, big sis, don't worry about me—gah!" Ram attempted to say before she collided with a bird, the flying creature crashed against Ram's gut, causing the CPU Candidate to cough uncontrollably as the bird continued on its way as if it had not been affected by anything.

"Ram! Are you okay?" Rom asked as she flew over to her twin sister.

"Y-Yeah, I'm fine, it's all good," Ram replied weakly, her arms wrapped around her gut as she breathed in and out heavily.

"You sure?" Brian asked as White Heart flew over to her younger sisters. "I don't want you to push yourself too hard if you aren't feeling well, I doubt you are due to that tough bird." As Ram looked away and pouted the young Ancient chuckled and grabbed the young Candidate, surprising her completely, yet the pink haired girl did not object to being held by the one person she idolised as a big brother.

"You all good to go?" White Heart asked, her tone indicated that she was starting to get impatient.

Brian nodded as his arms wrapped around Ram's small body. "Yeah, we're all good now."

Without a moments delay the Lowean CPU flew off back towards the direction of Planeptune with Rom flying beside her to the left, Ram wrapped her arms around the young Ancient and chuckled cheerfully as they made their way to Planeptune. As the group began to fly over the city Ram, still in her HDD form, looked up at Brian and smiled brightly at him. "Thanks for letting us tag along," she thanked him. "And thanks for holding me like this too."

"No worries, glad to help," Brian responded. "Come to think of it you and Rom have been pretty attached to me as of late, what's up with that?"

"What? Aren't we allowed to be with our big bro any more?"

"I didn't say that, Ram, I was just wondering why the two of you are so overattentive towards me is all."

Ram beamed a bright smile at the young man and moved her arms up his body until they were around his neck, her legs wrapped themselves around the young man's legs with a tight grip. "So does that mean I can be as affectionate as I want?" she asked.

Brian stammered for a bit and sighed. "Sure, whatever, just don't go overboard. Be too affectionate and Blanc might bash you up or something." When they both gazed up at White Heart they saw her nodding her head, agreeing with Brian's statement.

And with that said Brian was subjected to Ram tightly holding onto him with a bright smile for the rest of the trip to the Planeptune Basilicom. They made quite a sight for the Planeptuen citizens as the group flew through the air and further down away from the clouds, the most sharp-eyed of the citizens were able to spot the four of them individually, but most of the sharp-eyed people stared at Brian the Shadow Walker, they were able to recognise him due to all the radio and news reports of late. The young Ancient had not entered Planeptune for a long time, it felt almost nostalgic for him in a way. As the group neared the Basilicom Brian peered downwards past Ram's head and saw the green dumpster where he first crash landed in Gamindustri after Wraith opened a portal to transport him, and finally Angel, to this magical world. They then flew past the weapon store and the ramen store as well, they even passed the Guild, all of these places had been introduced to Brian when IF had guided him around the city.

 _So things truly have come full circle after all. Funny, I never have never felt this must nostalgia in my life, in a way it feels good to be back here. It would be interesting to see how things have change. I wonder if the people around this city have finally gotten over the fact that I destroyed some bits and pieces of this place? I doubt it but it would be a good change._ Brian thought to himself as they approached the Basilicom balcony. Once they landed on their feet Brian let go of Ram, who then reverted back to her human form alongside Rom and Blanc. The young man gazed over at the balcony entrance and saw Neptune running over towards them. "Looks like we're expected," Brian said as Neptune threw open the door and bounced energetically in front of the group.

"Heya you lot! How's it hanging?" Neptune greeted them with a bright smile.

"We're all good," Brian replied, receiving a nod from Blanc while Rom and Ram entered the Basilicom. "Been waiting for us long?"

The purple goddess shook her head. "Nah, Histy only told us that you lot were coming not long ago." Neptune then noticed the number of swords that Brian had taken with him, including the newest to his collection. Neptune was not quite sure why, but she felt rather uncomfortable around the dark purple blade "Um, what's with that sword? It kinda looks creepy you know."

"See? I'm not the only one who thinks that," Blanc informed the young man. "Why you had to bring it along with us is beyond me."

"I just wanted to, that's all," Brian retorted. "Anyway, can we get inside now, Neptune? I can feel a few glares piercing my back, and I don't think they're just doing it to be funny."

The CPU of Planeptune looked over the balcony to see a few of her citizens glaring up at them, more specifically glaring at Brian. Neptune stood back and chuckled. "Ah I wouldn't worry about that, Bri-Bri, in fact I think they've eased up on you." She then took a hold of his right hand and guided the young man inside the Basilicom, Blanc followed closely behind them, viciously glaring at the energetic goddess. "Come on, come one! We've got games to play an' all!"

As the three of them entered the living room Brian saw Victor and IF sitting together at the table, reading over old books, what the young man found amusing was that Histoire was also with them and interrupted them just to merely have a chat about their relationship – Brian had heard about it from Ram who heard it from Nepgear, she had obviously heard it from Neptune. Peashy was sitting on the couch playing a game with Nepgear and Compa, or at least attempting to play a game without breaking her controller. Brian could not see Angel or Plutia around, he guessed that they were somewhere else in the Basilicom or in another part of Gamindustri. Rom and Ram were running around the place and as soon as they saw Peashy they dragged the yellow goddess into their chasing game, it brought a small smile on Brian's face when he saw the three of them run around, laughing and frolicking away.

The young man then felt a singe of pain within his mind, seeing how happy these small – and possibly older than they looked – girls made him remember, or not remember in a way, his childhood. No real memory existed except for several moments on Earth alongside his 'parents' and Angel. The conflict between his two personalities began to clash again, but only for a short moment as the light side remained in control. However, his left hand began to twitch as he sat down on the couch with Blanc on his left and Neptune on his right, Nepgear and Compa were to the right of the purple goddess, once his swords had been set aside to the floor beneath him first of course.

"You alright, Brian?" Blanc asked, again concerned for his health.

"I'm fine Blanc, just a play of the nerves is all," Brian responded as he flexed his left fingers out, eventually the twitching subsided. "See? All good now."

Blanc eyed the young man with suspicion before sighing. "Whatever you say, Bri-Bri."

"I told you not to call me that." As Neptune giggled away Brian turned his head over to her and a wicked grin formed on his face. "That includes you as well, Neptune."

"Aw shucks! Why's that?" Neptune whined.

"I already told you this ages ago. Besides, only Compa is allowed to refer to me by that nickname, and that's only because she's bad at remembering names." The young man looked over at Compa and nodded at her, the busty nurse-in-training beamed a large smile at the Ancient before returning her gaze to the game before her and Nepgear.

"Meh, who cares," Neptune said as she grabbed Peashy's controller and another, she handed the fourth controller to Brian and smiled apologetically. "Sorry, Blanny, this is a four player game, 'fraid you're odd one out."

"That does not concern me, I brought a book with me just in case, although I was hoping for Brian to read with me." The Lowean CPU's gaze turned to Brian, her eyes narrowing at him as he took the fourth controller in his hands.

"Hey, don't worry about it. Besides, we're only here to see what Histoire wants with us so I doubt we will be here long."

"Heh, don't jinx it me old Ancient," Neptune chuckled as she reset the game for her, Brian, Nepgear and Compa. "Now then, let's-a-go peeps! We're gonna game till the moon rises and falls!"

Nepgear looked over at her younger sister and chuckled. "Um, Neptune, I don't think we will be awake by that time. Not to mention that Blanc, Brian, Rom and Ram are only here to see what Histoire wants."

"Come on, that can wait, my dear Nep Jr. Anyway, Histy is getting pisty with Iffy and Victy. After all, she didn't find out about them until just recently, same for all of us as well actually, all except you, Compa." Neptune then glanced over at the busty nurse, who chuckled nervously and scratched the back of her head.

Brian raised an eyebrow and glanced over at the Planeptunian Oracle, the Guild agent and the wind mage to see the latter two looking embarrassed while Histoire was floating in front of them, her arms were crossed and a serious look was on her face. The Oracle had just recently been informed about IF's and Victor's relationship, whether she was pleased or unhappy was hard to tell. Although, as Brian continued to glance at the three of them he noticed how Histoire's expression turned from a stern look to one filled with joy and acceptance. It appeared that the fairy Oracle had accepted IF's and Victor's relationship, although from what the young man could hear it seemed that Histoire was just like a mother to the wind mage, and acted like one too.

 _What a weird yet funny bunch, I never thought I would ever be in this situation, actually I've been saying that to myself ever since I first arrived in this crazy dimension. If only I could go back in time to see my past-self and tell him that things would be this great._ Brian thought as he focused on the puzzle game that was playing out on the TV, he glanced over at Blanc and gave her a smile before a quick, gentle on her right shoulder. The Lowean CPU beamed a loving smile at him and sat a bit closer to the Ancient, as she did so Neptune sneakily eyed them and then looked downwards as if she was depressed about something. As this all happened the young man felt as if something or someone was watching him, his eyes glanced back but found no one staring at him, the Ancient then shrugged his shoulders and resumed his divided attention towards the game and Blanc.

If the young Ancient had continued to look back behind him towards the balcony he would eventually have seen someone staring at him, the person's eyes glared blue, red and dark purple as he stared at the young man intensely. Soon afterwards the black cloaked man appeared to sigh as he disappeared from sight and up the building to a higher level, as he climbed onto a far smaller balcony he stood still and looked back down before shaking his head, opening the door before him and stepping inside the Basilicom. _Hmph. There might, or perhaps even will, come a time when you will regret ever thinking that, Brian the Shadow Walker. And yet who knows, maybe you may might just tell your past-self all about it, then again you may not if you ever met him. But if you do, will you have the wisdom to know what to say and not what to say. After all, I almost did the same._

* * *

Plutia stood in front of the lifeless and, to all extents and purposes, destroyed portal that once kept the connection between the Hyperdimension and the Ultradimension, she stared at the mechanical mess without blinking, her attention solely focused on what remained of the only thing that could have gotten her home at that moment. Her expression was grim, her arms rested at her sides and her back was straight, the CPU of the Ultra Planeptune was depressed and saddened. Leaning on a cracked, purple wall stood Angel, Wolf Heart of Gamindustri. The young, purple eyed man stared at Plutia sternly, his face appeared expressionless and his arms were crossed in front of his chest, his hair appeared to be more messy than usual as strands of his brown hair drooped over his face, ears and back of his neck.

The sadist took his eyes off the light purple haired goddess and looked at the mess that was once a portal, from what he could see there was a complete pile of destruction. Normally the young man would be pleased to see such a site, but this time he was not, he knew that it was the only way that Plutia and Peashy could get back to their home. Despite that he knew that there was another way to get them back to their dimensions, but it required large amounts of Share Energy from the faith of the people in both dimensions' Planeptune, which was something neither had in abundance at that moment. Neptune's Shares had decreased over the last week, in fact all of the other goddesses had begun to loose Shares as well, which was something Histoire was very concerned about. Plutia had little access to her Shares while in the Hyperdimension now that the portal was gone, and from what Angel had witnessed between a distorted image of the Ultradimension's Histoire and the Hyperdimension's Histoire it seemed as if Plutia was going to be spending a lot of her time in the future away from her original home.

The young sadomasochist leaned off the wall and walked over to Plutia, the small goddess looked up at him with a saddened look, to which Angel merely patted her head. "Everything will be fine," Angel told Plutia as he patted her head gently, ruffling up her hair. "The two Histoires will find a way around this problem, don't you worry about it."

Plutia looked up at him and smiled. "I know that, but I only just realised how much I missed my home, and everyone in it."

"Heh, maybe when this is all fixed up I can go back with you and see what this Ultradimension looks like. Plus I'm sure your friends over there are dying to see me." A cocky grin began to form in the corners of his mouth, defying his usual expressionless look.

The small goddess giggled and clutched onto Angel, her arms wrapped around his gut as she brought her head to his chest. "Well, I wouldn't say they are dying to see you, rather they just know about you and prefer to leave it at that. Although, the Vert back in the Ultradimension did show some interest in seeing you at some point in the future."

"Well then, sounds like I should go to your dimension at some point after all. You better get the staff at your Basilicom ready for when it's time for me to arrive, cause this CPU is gonna have a whole lot of 'fun'," The young sadist stuck a thumb up and winked at Plutia, causing her to break out laughing in a hysterical fit. Angel wrapped his arm around the CPU and held her close, but to the sadist's embarrassment – despite not showing any signs of it at all – his stomach growled unexpectedly, he looked down at his gut and grumbled at it. "Ah curse it, sounds like I'm hungry after all. Damn, wish I brought some food with me."

"Here, eat this then," said a calm voice with a strange, foreign accent. A black gloved and sleeved hand appeared from behind them with a small bag of nuts, Angel willingly took a handful of the crunchy delights and shoved them down his mouth before brining his teeth upon them.

"Thanks, Wraith," Angel thanked the strange, hooded man, not caring about his sudden appearance.

"No problem," came the reply. "Come on, you lot better head on down to the living room, and quickly. Histoire is going to be explaining why she summoned Brian, Blanc and the twin Candidates, although Victor and IF already know why."

"Do you, Wraithy?" Plutia asked the mysterious man.

"One: my current name is Wraith, not Wraithy; two, I may or may not know, but I am very good at guessing. And from what I have guessed, and might even know, something big is going to happen." With that said Wraith began to walk down the hallway towards the elevator, as he arrived in front of it and pressed the button to summon the elevator he glanced around to see Angel and Plutia walking up to him, their hands intertwined together as they stood side-by-side. The former Oracle seemed to chuckle in an almost quiet tone as the purple doors opened and together the three of them entered the elevator, descending to the lower levels.

Along the way down Angel continued to grab peanuts out of the small bag Wraith held in his right hand, the only sounds that could be heard were the crunching noises that emitted from the young man as he munched away on the light snack. Even Plutia began to munch away at the peanuts she took from Wraith. Strangely enough the tall man did not eat any of the nuts, in fact he barely even looked at what was left of the snack in his hand. Angel did not bother to question it, nor did Plutia for that matter. When they arrived on the level they wanted the three of them stepped out of the elevator and into the hallway, as they approached the living room they could hear raised voices and a lot of running footsteps, when they entered the large room the three of them saw Blanc yelling at her younger sisters while Brian was standing nearby, shaking his head as he sighed.

"You damn brats! Give me back my bloody book!" Blanc yelled at her younger twin sisters, shaking her fist around. Angel thought that the Lowean CPU would start to froth at the mouth.

"You'll have to play with us first!" Ram retorted with a bright and cheeky grin as she waved Blanc's novel around, running from one area of the room to the other alongside Rom.

"Like hell I'll be playing with you at this rate! Just give the damn book back before I smash you!" Blanc growled viciously and materialised her hammer, bearing it towards the twin Candidates, who merely laughed – at least Ram laughed, Rom appeared a little frightened.

Brian sighed and caught Blanc's attention by tapping her on her left shoulder. "Let me handle this," he told her. The Lowean CPU nodded and thus the young Ancient calmly strolled over to the two young Candidates, he had a small smile on his face that hid a burning rage. As the young man approached Rom and Ram the two Candidates stopped and looked up at him, at first things seemed fine, that was until a shadow fell over Brian's face and his eyes lit up with Share Energy, his mouth formed a vicious and sadistic smirk. "My my, you two seem to be having a good time messing around. Care to explain the situation to me?"

As Rom and Ram backed off in fear, Angel walked over to Blanc with Plutia besides him, the Lowean CPU looked up at him and the two nodded. IT appeared that they had the same thought. "Thinking what I was thinking then?" Angel asked her.

Blanc nodded. "Yes, Angel. Brian is different, somehow. He's more grim and dark, just like how he used to be. But it feels off somehow, now he's acting stranger than usual. Tch, damn that sword, it has to be a link to this strange behaviour."

The young sadist raised an eyebrow and glanced over at Brian's sword collection. "Huh? You mean that sword which looks like something Nepgear would use in a bad ending of a game?"

Blanc nodded. "Yeah, he just got it this morning via mail, but we still don't know who sent it though." As they both resumed their glance towards Brian they saw him get onto one knee in front of Rom and Ram, their faces were full of terror as they stared at their self-proclaimed 'older brother. "Tch. If Brian even harms them then he's going to be in a world of pain."

The young Ancient raised his hands towards the Lowean Candidates, as they looked away they felt his hands go underneath their hats and began to pat them. When the brown haired CPU Candidates looked up they were left staring at the face of a semi-happy young man, he had a small and caring smile on his face, his expression had lightened up and he appeared to be more calm than before. "Sheesh, how am I supposed to get through to you two?" Brian asked with a smile as he patted their heads gently. "If you want to play with someone that badly you should just ask politely, if you do that then I'll play with you two, and Peashy if she still wants to. In the meantime give the book back to Blanc."

Ram sighed with relief and beamed a bright and happy smile at the Ancient. "Sure thing, big bro!" As she walked up to Blanc the young Candidate stopped and turned around to face him. "By the way, er, th-thanks."

Brian raised an eyebrow at first before chuckling. "Sure, whatever, just give the book back to Blanc already."

Ram giggled and handed the novel back to Blanc, who took it swiftly and glared at the Candidate for a short moment before sighing, she smiled at her younger sisters and walked over to the young Ancient as the CPU Candidates of Lowee began to run around again along with Peashy.

"Thanks for that, you've been a great help with those two," Blanc thanked Brian., resulting in the young man to slightly blush and rub the back of his head. "Hmm, I think you might just make it as a decent father."

As soon as Blanc had finished saying that the room went silent, only the sounds of chirping birds passing by the Basilicom were the only source of sound in the area as all eyes turned towards Blanc and Brian. Many thoughts flew through their minds as they processed the Lowean CPU's comment, and as a result all they could say was: "WHAT?!"

The brown haired CPU of the north immediately turned bright red and began to stammer uncontrollably while the Ancient mildly blushed and glanced away in an attempt to get away from the staring, yet that had little affect as the young man could still feel the intense questioning stares burn through his flesh. Neptune was the most shocked of the whole group and immediately ran up to Blanc, she stuck her face close to the Lowean CPU's and stared sternly at her. Overall it felt rather uncomfortable for Blanc as she stared back at the purple goddess, she felt as if the Planeptunian goddess would reach out and grab her throat if she said anything that sounded weird.

"What's all this about Bri-Bri being a decent father and all?" Neptune asked, her voice indicating something off about her. "Are you… pregnant?"

"Huh? Is big sis preggers?" Ram asked, keenly interested in the whole conversation to Brian and Blanc's embarrassment.

"What does that mean?" Rom asked her sister.

"It means that Blanc is gonna have loads and loads of babies! Isn't that right?"

"Wha?! No! I'm not pregnant! I-I just said something random is all! B-B-Besides, th-think of it as a compliment and not an indication towards anything," Blanc explained as best she could, but the stern stares she continued to get from Neptune, and some others in the room, made her anger rise. " _I. Am. Not. Pregnant._ Got it?"

Neptune raised an eyebrow and glanced over at Brian, who was getting odd yet amused looks from Angel, Plutia, Compa and Histoire while IF and Victor were confused at the whole situation, Wraith – who seemed to be invisible to everyone – stayed at the back of the room with a wicked grin underneath his scarf. Rom and Ram seemed to be either disappointed or simply lost interest after the outburst, Peashy merely looked between Blanc and Brian, confused at what was occurring. Eventually the young Ancient felt obliged to give some sort of explanation. "Blanc's telling the truth, Neptune and co," Brian told them in a serious tone, which also happened to be his honest tone as well. "Everything is all good and in order, there's nothing to get worked up over, so have no fear."

That seemed to calm everyone down, all except Neptune, who merely glanced at the two lovebirds one more time before she finally made up her mind about something as soon as she saw Brian and Blanc smile lovingly at each other. The Planeptunian CPU then returned to the couch, picked up her controller and continued to play the game on the TV, from what Brian and Blanc could see it appeared that the purple goddess looked content enough to let the incident slide. IF and Victor looked back at each other and it seemed that the same thought came to both of their minds: parenthood; the two blushed madly and glanced away from each other as result.

Angel, meanwhile, seemed the most intrigued about the random comment that Blanc blurted out, apart from Histoire and Neptune of course. The young sadist had never thought of Brian being a parent, heck, he had even come to the conclusion that the Ancient would spend the rest of his life as a loner with only 2D anime girls to keep him company, a bleak and dreadful vision indeed. The young sadist never thought that his friend would manage to get this far in life, it made him chuckle internally as he watched Blanc knock Brian on the head. When Angel looked over at Wraith he noticed how he was staring at Brian, his cold, multicolour eyes seemed to pierce through the young Ancient's soul with unclear intent, it was as if something else was going on, as if a conflict was brewing in Wraith's mind. When the mysterious man glanced at Angel the young sadist swore that the God of Time was sad, as if some sort of past memory had come back haunt him, he also swore that Wraith was muttering something.

"The rising darkness… darkness… Afagddu…" Wraith muttered to himself in a quiet tone, although only Angel heard some of what the mysterious man said. He then leaned up against the wall and began to massage his head, it seemed like Wraith was suffering a headache, although the young sadist thought that there was more to it than that.

What surprised Angel, and even Wraith himself, was when Histoire heard the murmuring sounds coming from nearby, she glanced over at let out a cry when she set eyes on the former Oracle. "Wraith?! When did you get here?!" Histoire cried out in shock at the sudden surprise, catching everyone's attention as they soon realised Wraith was in the room.

"What? I've been here for a while already. Sheesh, even Angel and Plutia knew and I didn't need to introduce myself, I bet even Brian knew I was here just from sensing me with his Share Energy," Wraith explained as calmly as he could, strangely enough he seemed rather surprised.

"Really? Oh, m-my apologies." Histoire seemed to calm down afterwards, as did everybody else in the living room. However, not long afterwards the tome fairy was staring at Brian, she appeared to be studying the young Ancient and working out something in her head. Angel and Wraith glanced at each other before looking back at Histoire, they both had the same thought once again: the Oracle of Planeptune had just made up her mind about something. Histoire made her way over to Brian and Blanc, she floated in front of the young man and stared sternly at him. "Brian, I think it is about time I explain why I asked you to come here," she explained.

Brian turned his full attention towards Histoire. "Alright then, Histoire, I'm intrigued. What's the reason?"

Histoire breathed in and out deeply before looking at the young man with a stern expression. "The surviving Dark Captains have been sighted in the wilderness surrounding Planeptune City."

The Ancient stood still as he listened to Histoire, but as soon as she finished speaking everyone in the room could feel something off about Brian, the aura that seeped from him felt cold and full of malice. A minute passed before the young man even began to move his muscles, he calmly walked over to the couch, retrieved his three swords and began to walk towards the door that led out into the hallway, when he passed by Blanc the Lowean CPU heard him muttering: "Never again. Never again will I let those scum ruin our lives. _Never. Again_."

"Brian… are you alright?" Blanc asked.

"Hmm? Yeah, I'll be fine… eventually," Brian responded in a cold tone before he ran out of the living room and into the hallway towards the elevator, resulting in just about everyone in the living room to cry out in surprise at the young man's actions.

"Where's he going?" Nepgear asked, curious about the whole situation.

"He's going to try to find the last Dark Captains and kill them," Victor replied, remaining seated. "I think it is a bad idea to let him find them, for if what we have been told is true then he is in as much danger as the rest of us.

"Well shouldn't someone stop him then?" Compa questioned the others worrisomely, pausing the game she, Nepgear and Neptune had been playing previously.

Neptune narrowed her eyes and sighed as she began to get up. "I'll fetch-" the purple goddess began to say before Blanc cut her off without realising that she was talking. "I'll get him back before he gets himself killed," Blanc stated as she began to walk towards the door, leaving a saddened Neptune and heavy hearted company behind.

However, before Blanc could make it out into the hallway swiftly after Brian she was stopped by Angel who stood in the doorway, baring the Lowean CPU's way, he had a serious and grim loon on his usual expressionless face. The small, brown haired goddess was in no mood for this. "What are you doing, Angel?" she asked him in an almost enraged tone.

"It's for your own good, as well as Brian's," the young sadist replied. "Let Brian blow off some steam, he'll be back eventually. Look, I've known him far longer than you have so I know just about everything regarding his habits, and I happen to know that it is best for him to blow off his anger, you can't always just calm him down as you do because it won't help him all the time."

Blanc glared at Angel and bit her lower lip. "Why you… grrrr! Letting him vent his anger will only send him down the path of violence, and I have been trying to help Brian avoid that fate!"

"I know, but your methods won't always help. Besides, even you need to vent your anger out in violent bloodbaths in games and even smash a few things. Isn't that right?" Angel crossed his arms and stared at Blanc defiantly. "Don't worry about Brian, it is highly doubtful that he'll find the remaining two Dark Captains. He'll be back later, trust me, but if he doesn't show up after nightfall then we'll have to look for him."

Blanc pouted but seemed to comply from the looks of it, she walked over to the couch and fell down onto it with her book in her hands, a worried expression plastered across her face. Yet everyone, including Angel, knew that it was not going to be as easy as he or Blanc had just previously said, they all knew how the young Ancient could be at times like this. But with that the group returned to whatever they had previously been doing, although now the air was filled with uncertainty and even dread, it felt as if they had let loose a daemon upon the world if a stranger had entered the room. Wraith, meanwhile sighed and disappeared from sight. When Compa glanced around to ask if he was hungry she could no longer see him, she looked around before shrugging her shoulders.

IF and Victor, meanwhile, had restarted their conversation with Histoire, the matter of subject had turned towards Brian. Blanc, sitting nearby, pretended to read her book as she eavesdropped their conversation. "What happens if Brian doesn't come back though?" IF asked Histoire. "Will we need to ask the other goddesses for help?"

"Possibly, but only if we need help in finding Brian should he not return by nightfall," Histoire sighed. "Although, that would be slightly difficult. Noire and Uni are busy with paperwork while Vert is having problems with her own military."

Victor raised an eyebrow and appeared more interested than usual. "Is that so? What's going on?"

"Apparently Vert's generals have taken it upon themselves to ensure that what happened to Lastation does not occur to Leanbox, so they have begun to create an order of soldiers within the army. From what I have heard the soldiers in this group are known as 'Spartans' – technologically advanced warriors who fight for the glory of Leanbox. Vert and Chika seem to have given the all-clear sign for them to go ahead and start the program," Histoire explained. "Although I am worried that these 'Spartans' might become a burden to Leanbox in the future. The Land of Green Pastures is starting to become more militaristic, even now that Lastation has been fully rebuilt they have begun to take steps to increase their military with better weapons and armour. I hear talks of some people in Lowee and even Planeptune wanting to increase the military."

"Wouldn't that be a burden?" IF asked the tome fairy. "I understand the need for it all due to the threat of a destructive attack, just like what happened in Lastaion, but is it really necessary in the end?"

Histoire shrugged. "I don't know, all we can do is just see what happens and wait for the end results. Let us hope that the Dark Captain Crisis, as I have come to call it, ends swiftly and without bloodshed." The conversation soon ended afterwards, but the scent of dread and uncertainty did not leave the area, instead it seemed as if the unsettling aura was to linger for quite some time.

* * *

The air grew cold and the wind died away, leaving a cool atmosphere around Planeptune as the moon rose through the night sky, shining in the dark sky alongside the stars. On the main balcony of the Planeptune Basilicom floated Histoire, a troubled expression was all over her face as she stared at the slumbering city. The Oracle of the Land of Purple Progress was anxious, nervous even. Brian had still not returned. Despite their best attempts the group could not find the Ancient anywhere, not even IF and Victor with their great tracking skills, Blanc was also unable to find Brian with Angel and Plutia at her side, this inevitably strained the already strained 'friendship' between the Lowean CPU and Angel. Now that it was fully night Histoire called off the search, much to Blanc's chagrin. The group had stopped their search and returned to the Basilicom for the night, yet everyone was dreadign about what had become of the Ancient.

"Dammit, Brian, just where are you?" Histoire asked the cold, night sky absent-mindedly.

"He will be fine, trust me," a distant voice called out behind the tome fairy, when she turned around she saw Wraith standing by the entrance with his hands by sides.

Histoire was a bit surprised to see the mysterious man, yet again she knew that he would turn up at times when he believed he needed to. "Ah, Wraith, I was wondering where you had run off to. Was there something you needed?"

Wraith shook his head as he walked up beside the Oracle, the fairy felt a sense of dread flow from the tall man yet did her best to ignore it. The former Oracle looked down at the fairy and shrugged his shoulders as a response before speaking. "No, I don't need anything at this moment in time. However, it seems that you need all the help you can get."

Histoire nodded. "I know, I have already informed Vert, Noire and Uni about the situation so they will be here tomorrow to aid in the search, but I fear that even with their aid it may not be enough." She then turned over and glanced at the God of Time. "Can you help us with finding Brian if possible, please?"

To her disappointment Wraith shook his head. "No, that is not my task, in fact that is none of your tasks. Brian must find himself, he must find out what he truly is. If you insist on finding him then you can do so, just remember this: you may not like what you find."

Histoire glanced at the tall man with a glaring look, annoyed at what he was saying. "Do you not care about Brian? After all that you have been through can you at least show some sort of care towards him?" Wraith glared at Histoire as his eyes flared up brightly, causing the Oracle to back off slightly in fear. "S-Sorry! I didn't mean to be so aggressive towards you."

"It's alright, I'm used to it by now," Wraith sighed, slumming forward as he spoke. "Anyway, it's getting late. You should get some sleep and recover your strength for when the day dawns upon this world, you will need it."

Before Wraith could walk away back into the Basilicom he was stopped by the tome fairy's voice. "Hold on, I still want to speak to you regarding a few things."

The former Oracle turned around and stared sternly at Histoire. "Is that so? What is it about then? Brian, or me?"

"Both. How well do you actually know Brian? It seems to me, and possibly a few others, that you know a lot more about that young man than you let us on about." Histoire stared back at Wraith as he stood near the tome fairy of Planeptune.

The God of Time shrugged his shoulders and looked at her with an uncaring expression. "That is for you to decide, but I will leave you guessing abut it all. Any more questions, Histoire?"

Histoire nodded. "Just a few thoughts really. From what I have seen of you and what people have also said about you I guess that you are from the future, am I right?" When Wraith nodded Histoire sighed, she had finally gotten some valid information about him. "And is it true that you are undead?"

"Indeed it is true." Wraith then lifted his left hand up to his chest and blue energy began to swirl around in the palm of the hand, soon enough a bright blue power symbol formed in the palm of Wraith's left hand, surprising Histoire. "This is how I have survived for over a thousand years, I am a lich – a person who has achieved immortality by fusing their life into powerful objects. I… never wanted to become one, but it was forced upon me when I became who I am now, and this object in my hand is where I have stored what is left of my life force."

"Is that a Share Crystal?" Historie asked, astounded that Wraith even had one within him and was using it to keep himself in state of undeath.

The undead God of Time shrugged. "Sort of, it is actually a piece of a Sharicite. It was given to me as a way of keeping me alive, but that was before I became what I am today." As he spoke Histoire noticed that he seemed rather sad, as if these past memories of his haunted him or they had left a lasting impact on his psyche. The Share Crystal from the unknown Sharicite disappeared in a mist of blue energy. "But that's all in the past, what matters now, for everyone else at least, is the present."

"Or all three – past, present and future. I think I may know who you just might be, or at least a part of you." She stared at him grimly, guessing, possibly correctly, that she knew who Wraith truly was. "I would say your name, but I think you do no want me to utter it."

Wraith sighed and stood tall with his back straight, even with his glaring eyes the tome fairy could tell that there was deep pools of sadness in his eyes that emitted forth from him. "Very well then," was all Wraith said as he threw back his hood and lowered his scarf, revealing his face to the tome fairy.

Histoire stared at Wraith's face, shocked that she was right all along about his true identity. She had little to say however, instead the fairy Oracle floated atop her tome and her mouth was slightly open, as if she was going or wanted to say something but could not find the courage to do so. As wind blew past them, their hair wavered around on one side as the breeze blew past through the night sky, yet the two did not utter a single noise. Eventually Histoire finally spoke. "Well then, you have sure been through a lot, haven't you?" she asked him. "Just what have you become? What sort of god have you taken the mantle of?"

"I have become many things, most of which were out of my control. I am the Ancient God of Time, the God of Madness, Prophet of the Future and _the_ God of Gamindustri. I am all of these things and more." When Histoire looked shocked Wraith chuckled. "I know what you are thinking, and yes, I am truly the God of Gamindustri, in fact I was the one who decided to raise this world out from underneath the sea, brining about the destruction of the Old World and ushering the dawn of the New World. The power of Shares throughout Gamindustri was founded by me, I created all of this – well, not really but I did create the land itself at least. If you are wondering how I did it, well, look no further than Share Energy itself alongside my power. However, I am not as powerful as I once was, all because of these blasted seals that I have to maintain at all times, and at all costs."

The Oracle of Planeptune was stunned into silence, she was thinking just how powerful Wraith truly was and just what he was capable of. The silence was broken by Wraith who's right hand began to glow bright blue as he calmly and slowly walked towards Histoire, the Oracle broke out of her trance to see Wraith staring sadly at her. "I'm sorry, Histoire, but I cannot allow you to remember all of this," he said to her as his right hand drew closer towards her head.

Histoire would have tried to get away but was stuck in place, whether it was in fear or knowing that to resist was futile she did not know. At any rate Wraith placed his hand on the Oracle's head gently, wishing to do no harm to her, but harm came as all manner of energy rushed through the man's arm and into the fairy's head. Historie was filled with all sorts of thoughts and images of the past, present and future, she felt as if her head was being slowly and painfully crushed by a heavy object on all sides, her eyes lit up in the three different Share Energy that flowed through Wraith's body and she would have cried out in pain if she had the strength to do so. A blinding bright light enveloped around Wraith and Histoire, the tome fairy of Gamindustri felt her memories of certain events fade away into nothing as she fell into a forceful sleep.

Wraith took his hand off Histoire and carried her, and her tome, back into the Basilicom and into the living room, he laid her on the couch alongside her tome and walked back onto the balcony as he put his scarf and hood back on. The tall man looked over the sleeping city and sighed as his gaze turned towards Virtua Forest, as if he knew just what was going to happen. _I am sorry, Histoire, but I could not let you remember all of this, especially my identity. At least you will never remember, not for the moment anyway. Things are moving quickly, and not in a good way. The darkness is starting to make its move once again, and all that is held dear may either perish or be saved at a cost. I wish I could remember everything, but my memory of past events is clouded, either that or I simply cannot remember any more._ _Bloodshed will come, darkness will fall upon all, the end of an age is at hand, my time is coming to an end._ Wraith thought as he jumped off from the balcony and onto the ground below intact, leaving dust behind in his wake as he walked off into the empty streets of Planeptune City.

* * *

 **A/N: An interesting turn of events in this chapter, now that Brian is missing and the surviving Dark Captains have been sighted things are beginning to look as if the end is in sight. Any ideas as to Wraith's true identity? Originally I was going to reveal it but I decided against it at the last minute, mainly because I wanted it to be kept a secret until at some point in the sequel – which I have a scene set up in my mind already. Also I made a reference to what could occur in the sequel concerning the 'Spartans', just think about the Xbox and a few of their games and you could very well conjure an image about what I'm thinking of.**

 **Just another four chapters to go until the end, to be honest I'm kinda feeling glad that this is going to be over on a couple of weeks, then again I have come a long way with this so I'm not sure what to feel. Just a small idea, but I am thinking of redoing the first two dozen or so chapters. Completely remastered, hopefully free from grammatical errors and a better flow to it. Expect that to happen after I am done with most of my major projects, which include The Rising Darkness, its sequel, Subject 13: Mars and possibly another story that I just thought of a few days ago – won't spoil it much but it contains IF as one of the main characters. If you want to see it earlier just let me know, I'm still working on a draft though.**

 **Anyway, have a good day, good luck with anything you are doing and see you all with the next chapter.**


	62. The Rising Darkness

**Chapter 61: The Rising Darkness**

The sun was fully in the bright and cloudless sky as the sounds of spades dug through dirt, the lightly warm breeze blew through the ruins of an old an ancient village, sending loose particles of dirt flying into the uncovered eyes of nearby diggers. Several growls and curses emitted from a few of the diggers who got dirt in their eyes, those who had eye covers continued to dig away and brush small particles off small, broken pieces of pottery and rocks, almost polishing them to perfection. The diggers, and people around the area in general, were wearing hats with large brims, eye covers, thick gloves, a mix of long sleeved and short sleeved shirts of multiple colours, shapes, with and without collars, they also wore pants, shorts and boots. Many, if not all, seemed to be excited to be in the ruined village; the surrounding trees, the bushes, the wind blowing through it all made the area feel more lively and clear away the sense of death that laid over it.

Wheelbarrows went back and forth, carrying tons of dirt, rocks and what looked like centuries old ash. The contents were deposited into separate piles where people would rummage through to find anything of relevance that correlated with the history of the village they were investigating, square blocks of dirt covered in grass were piled elsewhere in the site, waiting to be put back when it was all over. Overall there was around twenty to thirty people, men and women, wandering around with specific jobs at hand, all working together. Aside from them there was no one else around, except for the sense of dread and unease that was haunting their minds, making them suspicious of just about anything.

This was not a random event to occur, this was planned a long time ago but due to the recent developments with the Dark Captains across Gamindustri, and also due to a lack of resources, it never took off the ground until a few days ago. This was an archaeology dig. The ruins? The Ancient village that Brian, Angel, IF and Nepgear initialled searched through a few months back. The purpose? To fully excavate the Ancient village and discover any findings that may be of interest to archaeologists and historians alike. The leader of the excavation was the archaeologist from Leanbox who sent Brian and co to the village to clear it out before receiving a warning from the young Ancient about excavating it, he was also the same person who had written a book about the history about the Console War as well as a book about a short history concerning the Ancients and their civilisation in Gamindustri. It was Malcolm Von Leanbox, the leading archaeologist and historian from Leanbox concerning Gamindustri's history, despite many critics noting how his works were filled with plenty of gaps, especially concerning the Ancients. Today, Malcolm hoped that he would silence his critics with whatever finds he could excavate.

As Malcolm sat down on a fold-up chair underneath an open, large tent, writing in his notebook about some of the few finds they could excavate he gazed around him and felt a sense of unease settle within him. The archaeologist was not sure why, but he felt as if the ruins were still inhabited by something, something out of sight and not of this world. Malcolm shuddered and continued to write away in his notebook, drawing various objects alike to their findings and writing small notes about them, humming to himself for a short while before talking. "Hmm, yes, very interesting, very interesting indeed," Malcolm mumbled to himself, stroking his small, blonde beard.

"What's interesting, sir?" asked one of the junior archaeologists – a young man with a twitchy left eye, light red hair, the sleeves of his brown collared shirt were rolled up above his elbows, blue jeans and a black leather belt, he wore no hat but instead a pair of glasses.

"What? Oh, nothing, at least nothing much my friend," Malcolm replied. "I was just pondering over a few items of interest is all."

"Oh? What would these items be?" The young man walked over to Malcolm's side and gazed at his notebook, he saw several drawings of different shards of pots, pans, drinking vessels and what appeared to be broken pieces of weaponry, there was even a layout map of the ruined village with markings to point out where building foundations were located – some were even located outside the village boundaries in the dense tree.

"Well, there are a few oddities that I find rather strange. The layout suggests that the village was once larger than we had previously thought. I think it was once a bustling town, filled with gold, silver, jewels and all manner of finery. I wonder what happened to the village to make it so small when it finally fell?" The Leanboxic archaeologist scratched his chin thoughtfully as he gazed at the hand drawn map, wondering over his own question.

"Maybe the Ancients living here fell on hard times – if Ancient actually lived here though," the young archaeologist said as he wiped the sweat off his brow.

"Oh Ancients lived here alright, I can tell from the objects we've found. There's only one problem, or in fact a rather interesting thing really: the items that we have found here are somewhat different from what we have found in other Ancient sites. It seems as if these objects are from either the later part of the Ancient Era or from an earlier part of it. Maybe they are from their original homeland from across the sea." Malcolm's eyes beamed as he thought of all the possibilities.

"Maybe we should have gotten that Ancient living over in Lowee to answer some questions," the young archaeologist said as he grabbed a spare hat from nearby.

"Perhaps, but I doubt he would have been compliant, he was far from that the first time we met after he and his companions scouted out this area." Malcolm then sighed and laid back in his chair. "Who would have guessed that the Ancients still live on, at least even though there is only one left. Shadow Walker, eh? Interesting, I think I've heard of that before when I was excavating an Ancient site a few years back."

"Hey, Malcolm, what is that?" another aspiring archaeologist asked, she pointed towards a rectangular object built alongside the small mountain range, the structure appeared to be intact and covered in vines, branches and small trees.

"What, that? That's a beacon, every single Ancient site that contained some sort of settlement has that sort of structure somewhere in an obscure location. I am not sure what it was used for, or how it was activated; it does not appear to be like the beacons we know of," the blonde, senior archaeologist explained as he gazed at the structure.

After a while of writing notes, drawing pictures and taking photographs of various findings Malcolm was disturbed by someone, or something, far in the distance behind a small rock formation. From what he could see it looked like a small child, but something was just not right about it all, for a start the middle-aged archaeologist swore that the child was lit up in a blueish looking colour that wavered around like a flame in a strong wind. Malcolm rubbed his eyes and stared at the area again before realising the strange, blue child was now gone, vanished as the wind disappeared.

"Hmm? What's wrong, Malcolm?" asked one of the diggers as they drank water out of a plastic bottle, nearly emptying it.

"What? Oh, nothing, just a bit jumpy I guess," Malcolm replied, shaking his head around to clear his mind. "I think this place is starting to get to me is all. It does have a… hmm, how to put it? It has an uneasy aura, it makes me kinda uncomfortable."

"Yeah, I get what you mean," said the water-drinking archaeologist. "I get the feeling that we're being watched."

Just then an archaeologist came running out of one of the three homes that had been carved out of the mountain range, he stopped in front of Malcom Von Leanbox and bent over slightly as he recovered his breath. When the archaeologist looked up his wrinkled face had an amazed expression. "Malcolm old friend, my team has found something remarkable," the old man said, he sounded rather excited. "We… phew, we have found something that we haven't found before, at least I think we haven't found something like this before anyway."

"What is it?" Malcolm asked, wondering what they had found.

"We were hauling out all of that rubble in the mine – at least we presume it is a mine – when we encountered some sort of seal, we think it's a seal due to the look of it. It was a square block that seemed to be carved into the rock that led away from the deeper parts of the mine, as if it were sealing a passageway, it had several circles surrounding what looked like a small symbol resembling a phoenix," the old archaeologist explained in detail. "From what I could gather the phoenix is a mythical creature that is often portrayed in Ancient mythology. I do not know what might be behind it but I believe that it could contain something remarkable."

Malcolm scratched his chin and hummed thoughtfully, the news of a sealed off room astounded him, the Leanboxic archaeologist had not expected such a development to take place at all. In all of his excavations he had never encountered a seal of sorts containing a hidden room behind them. "Very well then, gather what people you can with some pickaxes. We're gonna try to break our way through just in case we can't find a way through."

A few of the nearby men and women gathered a few pickaxes, spades, water, safety helmets, torches and followed Malcolm as he marched towards the site. As the team entered the deepest parts of the mine Malcolm could see piles of broken down rock and small boulders nestled to the sides securely by chains and plat\s, a clear path had been made to the lower levels where the sounds of pickaxes, spades, cursing and all sorts could be heard. It did not take them long to reach the hidden passageway, at the front was a large stone door with no doorknob, only the thin lines around the edges in the rocks gave it away as a door of sorts. Carved into the centre of the entrance was the strange seal, and it indeed looked like the description.

"Well now, I cannot see any way through from this end," Malcolm mumbled before turning to the archaeologists behind him. "Get this thing down, I've got some stuff to do in the eastern portion of this village. Remember: do as little damage as possible to the seal, I want that intact for the museum I am planning to open back in Leanbox."

The team nodded and got to work as Malcolm Von Leanbox strolled back to the surface, breathing heavily for air as he made it to the top. He was glad to have the fresh air flowing upon his face again, the mine down below had little air and people had already complained about the conditions down there. _I better get over to the eastern portion of this village, from what I saw when I first got here there is something that I want to see,_ _there is something that I have to confirm._ Malcolm thought as he made his way through the now clean pathways of the Ancient village.

When the senior archaeologist arrived at his destination he was standing amidst the ruins of a circular structure, the stone walls were laid out all around the area while the foundations remained. It would have once been a mildly large structure with round columns and a dome for a roof, the remains of what appeared to be an alter stood at the back of the most eastern part of the structure. From all appearances it seemed that the ruined structure was once a shrine to what divine it worshipped was unknown as no texts were around to tell the tale. At least that seemed to be the case anyway. As Malcolm began to clear away dust and dirt from the remains of the alter, as he cleaned the broken stone object he came across some words carved in the Ancient Tongue. The middle-aged archaeologist broke out in a chuckle as he saw the carvings.

"Yes, this is the type of stuff that gets my blood pumping!" Malcolm mumbled with an excited tone as he began to transcribe the carvings into his notebook. "If only I could properly understand what is carved into that stone, I'm sure it would help explain about the history of this place."

As Malcolm Von Leanbox wrote away at his own pace, smiling to himself at the discoveries that were being made, a ghostly figure of a young child watched him from behind the ruins of a small wall that once made up a storehouse. A blue colour glowed around the child as they stared at the archaeologist with dislike, their fingers rubbing anxiously against the cold stone. "What are they doing?" the child, a young girl, ask another blue shade, that of an old man with a hood and cloak. "Why are they doing all of this?"

The shade of the old man shrugged, his motions flickering around like a flame. "Who knows? It does not overly concern me however, I am sure that they have their best intentions in place. Although I can question their motives."

A third blue shade appeared behind them, crouching to get behind cover. This one appeared to be a woman with flowing hair. "Mortals dare to defile our home and gather all of our possessions as if they were already there's to begin with, and you would have us do nothing?"

"This is not the same world that we once knew, it has changed and will continue to change as the years go by. Besides, what can we do against such people? Nothing. But we need not act yet, for I feel a darkness coming, the shadow is falling over us all, and this land will know true pain and suffering," the ghostly old man said in an elderly tone. "But it is not just the coming shadow that I can sense, it is also the aura of someone known to use, someone we have not seen for over two thousand years. Although, come to think of it, we have seen him already, but he did not see us."

"Do you mean…" the young child began to say before being interrupted.

"I know of what you speak, and yes, _he_ is coming. Darkness has returned after all these long years," the old man responded. Suddenly his fading head turned sharply towards the dense tree to the northeast where a thick yet small set of what appeared to be ruined walls were laid out. "Hark, we are not alone."

True enough the old man was correct, the three ghostly shades peered over to the northeast and saw a few people in various different clothing, armour and weapons, they seemed to be otherworldly in some sort of way. One of the figures was wearing a black hood, cloak, boots and gloves, his eyes were dark yellow and a menacing look was upon his face. A set of black, thin plated steel armour with leather padding underneath and chainmail sleeves adorned his upper body, a set of thin, black steel armour covered parts of his legs and arms, a black steel plated helmet with a small set of spikes along the front and sides was on his bald head, his nose was guarded by a thick spike, his black hood rested atop the helmet. A longsword was strapped to his side and a belt of knives was wrapped around his waist. He seemed paler yet more darker than the other two around him in comparison.

The second person was a woman with flowing grey hair and blue eyes, a grim expression adorned her face as she stared at the archaeologists alongside her companion. She had a set of steel plated armour around her upper and lower body, arms, legs, feet and hands, her right hand was clasped around a sharpened trident. Her armour had several scratches and other battle marks across it, one even looked as if a sharp blade had managed to pierce through. The armour was a few thick and thin plates that made her look like a flexible juggernaut, some parts showed her grey clothing underneath however, but this was for a few of the bendable joints around the arms and legs.

The third person looked completely different from the other two. It was a man with black hair, a goatee, dark green eyes and there appeared to be several bionic implants that were visible on the left side of his face. He wore a brown leather jacket, a grey shirt, black jeans and army boots, his clothes were tattered and stitched together in many parts and it looked as if it had seen destructive combat. It looked as if the man was a cyborg of sorts due to the bionic implants that were visible on his face, arms and legs, there were even some robotic parts inside his body that were not visible. A grenade belt was strapped over his chest and a combat shotgun was slung over his back. The three of them failed to notice the ghostly shades who stared at them, retreating into the shadows.

"Well, what are we going to do?" the cybernetic enhanced man asked the black hooded and cloaked man. "There are suitable subjects here for testing the latest creatures."

The tall, pale man grinned malevolently. "I know, that is the first reason why we are here, Henderson. The second reason is to see what the whole commotion over here was, but it seems that all they are doing is merely digging up this dirty, ruined village."

"I believe it is called an archaeological dig," the woman said with a monotone voice "I heard of this kind of thing from some of the Dark Followers, they said that this was a mild and rare occurrence due to the lack of sites to dig, most of these sites are hidden in areas that have yet to be discovered. Seems like they have found the jewel of the crown, so the saying goes. This place feels majestic, yet also dead and full of hate. At least that is what I feel anyway. Do you two feel it?"

The hooded man nodded, his expression now grim. "Yes, I do feel it, and I wish I could not. Something old is here, something hangs over this place." The hooded man shuddered and shook his head. "The spirits of this village do not welcome us, and I do not welcome them and their hatred towards all living things."

The cybernetic enhanced man scoffed and chuckled. "Ha! Ghosts? Really? Pathetic. There is no such thing as ghosts or anything ghostlike around here, you're all just over thinking it."

The grey haired woman glanced at the black haired cyborg with a displeased look in her eyes. "You should not be so ready to dismiss fact and fiction, both are intertwined in more ways than you thought. And remember this: you are a Dark Follower, not a Dark Captain, do not think that you can attempt to converse to us as if you were one of us. Know your place."

"Calm down, Severia, Henderson here does have a point, we just might be over thinking things. It would not be the first time that it has happened. Besides, you should not be too harsh with Henderson just because he failed to get back to that steam punk-like city to save Lothar, his body was almost completely destroyed by the Wraith," the hooded man with the spiky helmet said, his cold and glaring eyes staring at the Dark Captain known as Severia.

Severia the Stoic glared at the pale man, clearly she was not amused in the slightest, her usual stoic face had formed into an irritated look. "Keep your thoughts to yourself, Agandur's Right Hand. You are not as powerful as you claim to be you know."

The Right Hand shrugged with an uncaring look and gazed back towards the mildly large group of archaeologists, the malicious grin returning to his face. "It matter not, we have a task before us. Our new soldiers of war must train, must explore their powers, must feast." As he finished speaking shadows loomed out of the dense woodland, but they were not in the shapes of humans, but instead of strange beasts.

The beasts looked like humans at first glance from a distance, but if one was to look closely they would see that they were far from being human, they were a new generation of monsters. These monsters were cross-bred between humans and all manner of monsters, their DNA split apart and formed together, the breeding pits in the cave system underneath Haruno Village were filled with even more experiments such as these. The new generation of monsters that were alongside the Dark Captains consisted of wolf-men – humans who where covered in fur, claws and a slightly odd body structure – and what appeared to be a cross-breed between a human and a dogoo, which looked like a human with slimy tendencies and an armoured body, a few even had goofy grins and smiles, not all seemed to be kind and carefree.

Yet is was not only just these new monsters that were present, it also appeared that there were at least a few dozen of them, including a few other monsters that looked completely otherworldly – they had a mix of dark, grey and less than bright skin, they were heavily armoured with leather overlapping each other and leather helmets, straight steel broadswords with a spiked tip at the back were in their hands, a bloodthirsty look was in their expressions. Agandur's Right Hand rose up straight and pointed towards the ruined village. "Forward! Slaughter them all in the name of the Dark Lord!" the Right Hand shouted in a bellowing voice. Severia glanced away from the slaughter while Henderson watched, grinning in an immoral way.

* * *

As the afternoon sun disappeared behind a large group of clouds in the darkening sky of Gamindustri the sounds of all manner of life throughout Virtua Forest defined into nothing, leaving an uncomfortable state of dread as a lone figure strolled through the woods along long forgotten paths, keeping to themselves as the deadly silence reigned over the area. The figure's white coat flowed as a breeze blew through the woodland, as the leafs blew across the broken stone path the lone figure stood still and listen to the wind, to them it sounded as if there was something odd going on. It sounded as if dozens of cries were flowing through the wind, it sounded almost faint and supernatural, yet audible. The lone figure looked towards the west where they thought the sounds were coming from, wondering if it was a trick or if something was going on over there.

"It could be just my imagination, maybe it could just be some sort of trick going on in my mind, I know that things haven't been the same since I touched Gehaburn," the coated figure said out load. "Although, I have been wrong before in the past, guess I should just trust my gut and check it out."

The figure – a young man – straightened his cap, tightened the belt around his waist, made sure his three swords were strapped onto him properly and made his way westward to where he thought the strange, wailing noises were coming from. As he continued on his way his cold, glaring brown eyes glanced at the different trees, bushes, logs, branches and at the broken cobble road that was beneath his feet, everything felt old, ancient and out of time. The sense of dread and uncertainty crept back into the young man's mind, he had felt it before back when he visited the Ancient village in north Virtua Forest, and whenever he had a vision of the past. The young man would have shivered if he was normal, but he was far from normal, in fact some would say that he was so far off the spectrum that many would call him a madman.

"Mad. Pah! Mad indeed, as if," the young man grumbled as he stepped over a fallen log covered in moss. "I'm just a vengeful Ancient who wants to slaughter all of his enemies. So say I, Brian the Shadow Walker, last of the Ancients."

Brian continued onward down the broken stone path, his sight laid directly in front of him. After around twenty minutes of walked along the worn out broken path the young Ancient arrived at the site where he believed the cries in the wind were coming from, and it was a site he knew well, not only in memories but also his dreams and nightmares. Laying before Brian was the ruined Ancient village, the two guarding stones at the entrance of the densely wooded area appeared more sinister than ever before, the stench of death reeked from within the village. Brian grimaced sternly and walked past the guarding stones into the village, not long after walking within the viewable boundaries of the village the young man found himself within a bloody mess of corpses.

"What the hell happened here?" Brian asked himself as he gazed at the amount of bodies around him. Some of the corpses had been brutally mutilated and torn apart while others were merely a few shreds of clothing, bloodied bones and distorted flesh. "What the actual hell? Who, or what, could have done this? And who were these people? Hold on a moment… I think I've seen a few of these guys before back at the Planeptunian museum. Hmph, guess they finally ignored my warning and got ripped apart by some sort of monster, or monsters."

The young Ancient strolled down the ruined and dirty street of the ruined village, the paths were bloodied and some had large square holes in them, in the distance towards the grassy areas there were some large piles of dirt and square dirt blocks, there were even a few mutilated corpses as well. Brian arrived at the centre of the village and stopped directly at the centre next to a broken pillar, he remembered that the centre of the village was where the markets would have originally been, but that mattered little to him at this point. The young man glanced at the darkening sky, his ears picked up a strange noise that sounded like a wail in the wind, then as it disappeared he heard the sounds of faint laughter, the tapping of hammer against metal, the clinking of chainmail, the hammering of stone and the strange tongue of the Ancients. Suddenly came the sounds of steel clashing against steel, the flickering of fire, the smashing of stone and rock, the cries of the dying and the shouting of soldiers.

As Brian glared around him and made his way towards the rocky mountain, where he had received his first vision. However, just as he arrived in the area the Ancient swore that he saw a small girl hiding behind a broken pillar, she appeared to be blue and flickered with the wind, yet there was none to be felt. Brian stared at the ghostly figure for a moment before she disappeared, but he still walked over to the broken pillar to see her up ahead by a few trees, she appeared to be heading eastward towards the rest of the village. Feeling adventures Brian followed after her, hoping to catch up with the strange ghost and get some sort of answers from her – or it.

"Hey! Hold up already!" Brian called out to the ghost, hoping that they would top. However, they did just the opposite and instead increased their speed. "Gods damn it! Just where is this ghostly girl or whatever trying to do here?"

When Brian finally caught up with the ghost he found her standing before the ruins of what had once been a shrine, at the base of the ruined alter lay he mutilated corpse of Malcolm Von Leanbox, his notebook was still firmly clutched in his left hand, but what caught the full attention of the young man was the ghost itself. When she turned around Brian noticed the shortish hair, the pale dead eyes, the cloak and the clothes that the young man thought he had seen before in a distant dream, the ghost was indeed a young girl however. The ghost stared at Brian with a stern expression, neither evil nor good. When she spoke it sounded clear as a water spring and full of cheerful optimism.

"Eheheheh… I guess this might be awkward for you, right?" the ghost asked, smiling apologetically.

Brian shook his head, surprising the child ghost. "No, not really. I've seen some messed up stuff throughout my life, I expected ghosts to be somewhere though, guess I found one after all. Are you the only one here? And who are you? I've felt as if I have seen you before, but I just cannot place it."

The ghost did not answer him, instead she walked up closely to the young Ancient, staring directly into his eyes, which did make him feel uncomfortable. She then glanced at the dark purple sword strapped to Brian's back, its dull blade standing out. However, Brian was utterly surprised to see the ghost back off in terror at the mere sight of the cursed sword, her face was mixed with horror and hatred. "Where did you get that sword? Where did you get Gehaburn?!" the ghost demanded, her eyes narrowing and her fists tightening.

"Huh? I got this in the mail, someone posted the damn thing to me this morning. And before you ask, no, I do not know who sent it to me," Brian explained as best he could in a calm tone. "What does it matter to you?"

"It matters because… because… oh you would never know, you never saw the fall of the Ancients." The girl rubbed her gut as if she remembered some sort of pain from a long time ago, but what made the young man stare at her with wide and shocked eyes was because of what she has just said.

"Hold on a moment, are you saying that you're… you're an Ancient?" Brian asked, a piece of his mind hoping that it was true.

The ghost nodded sadly. "Yes, I am an Ancient. I'm amazed that people even know of our race, though I guess with everything that happened I shouldn't be surprised. Now our race is extinct, all those who are left are ghosts, shades of their former selves who haunt specific ruins and burial mounds. We are all dead."

As the child ghost sank to her knees and sighed depressingly the young man looked down at her, feeling something he thought was only a part of his visions. Eventually he spoke. "The Ancients are not dead. I am the last Ancient."

The ghost looked up at Brian, her dead eyes full of surprise and shock. "What? You're an Ancient?" When she stood up the child ghost took a long look at him, humming thoughtfully for a moment before beaming a bright smile, tears would have begun to flow forth from her eyes if she was still alive. "So you are telling the truth, you are an Ancient. I can tell by how your ears are a little more pointier than normal ears, not to mention that Ancients are tall and that you seem more elvish than most. What's your name?"

"Brian the Shadow Walker," was what Brian replied with, but to his surprise the child shook her head, her expression filled with sadness once more.

"No, that is not your name, I can tell." She looked at him sternly, as if hoping that he would remember something. "Do you… well, do you remember anything about your past?"

Brian shook his head. "Not really, but I have been having some visions about this place. I dream of terrible things, war, blood, death, and… and I saw a child die at the hands of Kurome, the first CPU." His eyes glowed fiercely with Share Energy for a short moment, scaring the ghost. "Oh, sorry about that. Anyway, I never caught your name."

The ghost rubbed her arm again nervously. "I-I'm Claudia. I'm an Ancient, well, a Lesser Ancient actually, that's why I look more like a normal human and why I have a non-Ancient name."

However, that mattered little to Brian, he was more in shock that he had encountered the ghost of the child who appeared in his visions and dreams. The ghost continued to stare at Brian, a small smile breaking out across her face. "So that name means something to you after all doesn't it, Afagddu?"

"What? Why are you calling me Afagddu? I thought that was the name for my father." Brian looked back at Claudia with shock, surprised to hear her say that name to him.

The ghost looked uncertain at first, unsure about something from what Brian could tell, but the look of uncertainty passed as soon as Claudia looked over to her left and appeared bashful. The young man looked over to where the ghost was looking and saw another ghostlike being approaching them, waving around like a flame on a candle, their appearance was somewhat distorted and otherworldly. The ghostly figure stopped beside Brian, their cold eyes glaring through him, it felt as if it was trying to read his thoughts or his soul. Eventually the cold feeling subsided and the distorted face revealed what looked like the ghost of an old man wearing a hood and cloak, his clothes tattered, it also seemed as if a long beard was visible as well. When he spoke the voice sounded distant and cold at first, but soon afterwards it sounded warm and caring.

"Interesting, utterly interesting indeed," the old ghost mumbled to himself. "Follow me, Shadow Walker. It is time you had your final vision."

Intrigued, Brian followed the old ghost with Claudia tagging along not far behind. The three of them entered what remained of the shrine and stood around the broken alter, the young Ancient could not help but notice the carvings that were visible all along the brim of the alter. The old ghost stood still and gazed at Brian before speaking. "Place your right hand on the alter, then you will receive the vision that will answer all your questions."

Brian obeyed the ghost's words and placed his glowing right hand on the alter, soon he felt a rush of pain surge through his head, just like every single time had a vision. Suddenly Brian's eyes and body lit up in a bright blue colour, a muffled cry emitted from his mouth as his back arched backwards and his mind seeped back into the past, to the day the Ancients fell.

* * *

 _The young boy stood in front of the funeral pyre with tears flowing down his cheeks, he attempted to hold back his crying but failed, instead he fell to his knees and cried all the tears he could onto the ground, staining it. The heat of the pyre spread across his face, the smoke almost made him choke. All around him stood the survivors of the first attack upon the village, a mix of soldiers and civilians stood silent as rocks and tall as trees, a sense of foreboding was evident everywhere as the carnage of last night's battle laid around them. But none of that matter for the boy, all that matter to him who was on the funeral pyre, burning into nothing but ash and dust._

" _Mum… dad… Claudia," the boy muttered with a depressed and saddened tone, his eyes still tearing up as his right hand violently scrunched up some grass while his left hand clutched the necklace around his neck. The necklace once belonged to Claudia, she wore it everyday since her parents died, but now it was his turn to bear it with sadness._

" _Keep your head up high and remember your parents and friend with honour, they gave their lives to keep others alive," the old, wizened man said as he walked up to the boy. The old man still had hardened ice in place of his missing limbs. "All you can do now is to remember them, that is all you need to do to honour their memories."_

" _But that won't be enough, right?" the boy asked him fearfully. "We can't stop Kurome can't we? What can we do against such reckless hate?"_

 _The old man scratched his chin thoughtfully before speaking again. "Before we were ambushed by Agandur and Kurome I was hoping to get you and Claudia to the shrine, there is a lot of magical energy along with pure fragments of Share Crystals, but it is also an ideal place to create a portal to another dimension."_

" _Are we all going to another place to survive?"_

" _Maybe, but I think only you will survive this. I think the Prophecy of the Shadow Walker is about to take place." He then hummed to himself thoughtfully before he looked up at the sky, a red sun was appearing over the horizon, the clouds were black due to the smoke, the sounds of war were coming back. "The next assault will happen at any time soon, we have to get you out of here."_

 _The boy stood up straight and looked at the old man, his face stained with tears. "Why just me? Why not everyone else?"_

" _Glory to all who stand and fight for the people they love. We fight not for survival, but because our time is over, however, your time has only just begun." The old man, and everyone else, began to walk towards the shrine. "Come, Afagddu, we must make you ready. The time for the last Shadow Walker has come."_

 _As they neared the shrine the boy, who was walking beside the old man, looked up at him with questions running through his mind. "Um, what's a Shadow Walker? And what's a Lesser Ancient? I heard some people a while ago talking about it."_

 _The old, cloaked and hooded man looked back at the boy, a faint smile on his face. "A Shadow Walker is a mix of things: a warrior, a mage, a thief and more besides that. According to the legend a Shadow Walker has the soul of a phoenix and is the reincarnation of every Shadow Walker known to the Ancients ever since Bleddyn, the first Ancient. A Shadow Walker is basically death incarnate, and is capable of accomplishing feats that many would find impossible, even for the most powerful of Ancients."_

" _Really? That's kinda cool. I wish Claudia was listening to all of this." The boy's mood dropped and he quickly became depressed again._

 _The old man patted the boy on the head gently. "Do not worry, her spirit will live on. Now, as for the difference between the Ancients; the Lesser Ancients are like us Pure Ancients aside from the fact that they have given up their inborn ability to harness certain powers, not to mention that they also breed with lesser mortals – the normal humans. There are more Lesser Ancients than there are Pure Ancients, and it is they who lead most of the attacks against us alongside their chosen deity, Kurome. Agandur is a Lesser Ancient too."_

 _When they arrived at the shrine everyone surrounded the tall, marble building while the boy and the old man entered the building. They walked towards the alter, passing carvings and paintings of an age long since passed, the young boy noticed that as he neared the alter there were two paintings that took his interest. The first painting was a picture of a wasteland with a ruined city with a large tower, at the base it looked as if there was a battle occurring and a duel was happening atop the tower; the second painting had a large, snowy clad mountain, a battle was raging at the base while two figures, who looked who had immense power, fighting each other as the sky was red and orange, fireballs fell from the sky – the sky was raining fire._

 _The two reached the alter where the old man began to pull out some sort of bright blue chalk, it was strangely glowing as he held in front of his face. The old man turned back to the boy and demanded something weird from him. "Take your clothes off, minus your underpants," he instructed without emotion._

 _The boy, despite feeling all sorts of emotions, did as he was told and stripped to his boxers, he stood by the alter and remained still as the old hooded man began to draw all manner of markings all over his skin, each marking glowed and became part of his body. Once the old man stepped back he grinned as he gazed at the boy, the markings on his body glowed as they became on with his skin. The cries and clashing of battle thundered around them; the final assault had begun._

 _The wizened old man began to circle around the young boy, chanting in a low voice, the language was unlike anything the boy had ever heard._ _It was the Ancient Tongue the boy was listening to. "Erbyn y duwiau yr Hen Fyd, gall hyn Hynafol yn cael ei bendithio gyda hen hud, efallai ei fod mor gryf fel cawr, yn ddoeth fel duw, mor gyflym ag y neidr, yn flin â Ymerawdwyr o hen ac fel tragwyddol fel ffenics. Efellai ei god yn bendithio ac yn melltithio fel Cyysgodol Cerddwr, ac efallai ei fod yn gwneud yr hyn y mae'n rhaid ei wneud. Efallai y ffenics yn arwain ef I heddwch a rhyfel."_

 _The boy felt at ease yet also terrified as soon as the chanting finished, then came the pain, immense pain. He cried out in pain as the markings burnt into his skin, leaving nothing behind until a time would come when he could call upon it in times of passionate emotions, specifically rage. When the pain subsided the boy almost keeled over with fatigue the old man help him onto the alter and smiled at him. "Well done, Afagddu, not all survive the blessing process," the old man said to the boy. "I'm glad you did, it seems you are the Shadow Walker that the prophecy spoke of. That's good, really good. Now, time to get that portal up."_

" _H-Hold on a moment, what did you just chant?" the boy asked, shivering from the cold._

" _I was speaking in the Ancient Tongue, but in the Common Speech it is known as thus: 'By the gods and goddesses of the Old World, may this Ancient be blessed with the old magic, may he be as strong as a giant, as wise as a god, as quick as a snake, as angry as the Emperors of old and as eternal as a phoenix. May he be blessed and cursed as Shadow walker, and may he do what he must do. May the phoenix within guide him to peace and war'."_

 _As the old man held is only biological arm up next to the alter the sounds of battle neared them until a wall in the shrine exploded, stone and marble flew through the round room, columns collapsed and a bloodied body hurdled past them, smashing into a column, breaking several bones. Several soldiers led by a red haired lady, the boy recognised her from before when she used the power of electricity to almost fry Kurome. At any rate there were only a small handful of Ancients left, and all were bloodied and beaten. "We're about to be finished off here!" the red head yelled as sparks of electricity sprang forward out of her outstretched left hand, smiting a Gamindustrian soldier._

" _Then the time has come," the old man responded, turning back towards the boy as he continued to channel his magical energy. "Keep them busy for as long as you can, I have to get this boy to another dimension!"_

 _The red head nodded and charged back into combat, her opponent was none other than Kurome who quickly punched her aside_ _after blocking blow after blow with her megaphone_ _._ _The CPU's dark purple eyes glared viciously at the old man as she held her right hand out, a multitude of colours emitted forth as a sword appeared in her right hand, and the mere sight of it made the surviving Ancients reel back in terror. The sword had a_ _purple and pinkish blade,_ _thin blue crystal was in the centre of the hilt between the blade and the handle, a small purplish-pink crystal was_ _positioned lower to the blue crystal_ _and_ _the hilt was made up of a dark purple colour, it could be firmly held with either one hand or two hand_ _s._

 _The old man snarled viciously as the portal began to spring up,_ _his hate filled eyes glaring sternly at Kurome, who slashed the head off one Ancient without effort. "That sword… Gehaburn… where did you get it?! It has been lost for centuries since the fall of the Old World!"_

 _Kurome grinned deviously as she approached the old man, Agandur was nearby fighting off several Ancients as more Gamindustrian soldiers arrived on the scene. "Where you ask? Why, I received it from my Oracle. That tome fairy of mine is quite a scavenger, she found me this years ago. A nice sword indeed,_ _the souls of all those who were slain even call to me, and they call for me to destroy the Ancients – every man, woman, child and baby._ _Now, die!_ _"_

 _Kurome sprang forward and swung Gehaburn_ _horizontally at the old man, who rose_ _a hand and created a thick layer of ice as a shield,_ _the purple-like blade_ _almost pierced through the ice as cracks appeared all over it. The portal fully opened_ _and the boy_ _quickly ran towards it, Kurome growled and smashed through the ice shield,_ _the blade cleaving through_ _the old man's flesh and through his back,_ _blood_ _oozed from the fatal wound,_ _blood also flowed out of his mouth as he fell to the ground._

" _Your turn now, boy," Kurome growled as she_ _and Agandur charged at the boy._

 _The boy, Affadgu, fell backwards through the portal, escaping the tips of the blades of Kurome's and Agandur's weapons,_ _but only barely as Gehaburn caught the necklace around the young boy's neck and ripped it off_ _,_ _the last he saw of that dimension was the scowling looks he received from the dark blue woman and her silver haired companion._ _Then came the_ _darkening Void, the swirling marks_ _of the portal, the empty space between the different dimensions_ _filled the young Ancient's mind and was all around him as he plummeted towards a new dimension,_ _and_ _a new world._ _The boy fell through space and into the hemisphere of the new dimension like a shooting star, falling through the clouds and into the night sky straight towards the_ _earth. He landed with a loud thud in the outskirts of a town, the dimly lit lights barely made an appearance to the boy's eyesight as he laid in the wavering grass, tears flowing down his face and onto the ground once more, no words could describe what he has just witnessed._

What do I do now? I have no family and my friend is a pile of ashes in another dimension, plus I have never really looked after myself before. What do I do? _The boy thought depressingly as the tears stained his face, his hands scrunching the grass around him._ _However, his thoughts were interrupted by the sounds of footsteps squashing the grass as they neared him. Afaggdu tried to look around to see who it was but_ _his muscles became stiff. Finally a shadow in the darkness loomed over him and a set of eyes_ _stared down at him, to the boy's fascination and horror the eyes were flaring blue and red with dark purple pupils._ _The tall man looked down and made no sudden movements._

" _Hmm, you are far from home and full of grief. Am I right?" the stranger asked as he bent down on one knee next to the boy, his strange accent confusing him for a moment._

" _Wh-What? Who are you?" the boy asked, unsure if he wanted to know."_

" _My name is not important at this point in time, but in the future you will know me, and further from that you will understand everything about me. But first," the man began to explain as he picked up the boy, standing up with the kid in his arms. "You need a place to stay for the night before deciding your future, so I will be taking you to my home, hopefully Angel doesn't ask too many questions about all of this. I'm sorry, but I will need to erase your memory after tomorrow, and I may as well erase Angel's memory as well just to be on the safe side."_

 _The small,_ _almost naked_ _Ancient did not say anything, he reckoned – correctly – that it would have been pointless to argue with the kindly stranger,_ _nor did he really much care about who Angel was_ _. As they made their way to the town in the distance_ _the boy looked up at the stranger's hooded and obscure face, a question had formed in his mind. "Hey, what do I call you?" he asked._

" _Well, in the future you will know me as Wraith, so call me that until tomorrow," the man known as Wraith replied. "_ _Now, go to sleep, I'll find you some clothes when we get back after I wake you up." The boy did not see it but Wraith smiled with a caring look_ _as he said that, at any rate his words made the young boy fall asleep, and everything felt like a dream he could and would not remember._

* * *

The young Ancient returned to reality and to the present, his eyesight was blurry and he stumbled around in an attempt to keep standing up, eventually the young man grabbed the remains of the alter. He looked around him in a frenzy as he eyesight returned, the ghosts of the old man and Claudia returned as he laid his eyes on them, but they were not the only ones there before him. Standing behind the two ghosts where the shades of all those who fell on that dreadful day, they all stood still with deathly faces, their bodies wavering in an invisible wind while they stared sternly at Brian, their dead eyes burning into his soul. However, to Brian's amazement the ghostly shades all fell onto one knee and bowed their heads, then they began to shout in the Ancient Tongue directly to the young man.

"Chenllysg Afagddu! Chenllysg Ymerawdwr yr Hynafwyr! Chenllysg y cennad Marwolaeth!Chenllysg y Tywyllwch! Er myn eich rydym yn rhoi canmoliaeth fawr!" the shades cried out in ghostly voices. Brian did not need anyone to translate for him, his Royal Blood did it for him. The young Ancient grinned as he translated the words for himself, revelling in it. The translation was: 'Hail Afagddu! Hail the Emperor of the Ancients! Hail the Harbinger of Death! Hail the Darkness! To you we give great praise!'.

Brian's dark personality began to surface and take over his mind, the light side within him began to die away and disappear, Gehaburn lit up in a dark purple glow and his body flared brightly, lighting up the entire ruined village. Brian unsheathed the cursed sword and swiftly held it up above him upright, the Share Energy within his body was unleashed along with the dark energy of Gehaburn, bright blue and dark purple shot upward into the darkening sky and lit it up as lightning thundered above, the young man was lit up in a large amount of energy as the marks of the phoenix appeared across his flesh. He yelled out as the power engulfed him, blowing his hat off his head, his hair and coat flowed backwards, the very ground splintered apart as Share Energy burst out.

Brian the Shadow Walker, now also called Afagddu the Emperor of the Ancients, grinned malevolently, his eyes became cold and full of hatred. The darkness within his heart and soul had finally taken over, putting down the light within into a prison surrounded by hatred and bloodlust. As Brian glared at all before him as the Ancient ghosts continued to kneel and bow before their emperor he knew what he had to do to end the Dark Lord's influence once and for all, but a realisation also hit him as he laughed. _Now it all makes sense. The Dark Lord isn't the only darkness that is engulfing the land, nor is he the only one who holds this world at the edge of a knife. I_ am _The Rising Darkness!_

* * *

 ** **A/N:**** ** **Sorry for the extra wait, things have been pretty hectic for the last few days so I could not find much time to get this chapter finished.**** ** **I hope it was worth the wait. Originally I had hoped to extend this chapter but I was running out of time, plus I could use all the extra things I could not put in for this chapter and place them in the next chapter –**** ** **that'll be good for me I guess**** ** **. Also, this is the longest chapter that I have ever created - almost ten thousand words, well, it's actually around less than nine thousand three hundred.  
****

 ** **So,**** ** **now that Brian's/Afagddu's true identity and past has been revealed, and that he is now Emperor of the Ancients – the ghosts of them at least – what will this mean for the story and the sequel? Who can say? I have a general idea, but it's all guesses for now.**** ** **Also, is the title of this story referencing Brian the Shadow Walker or Agandur the Dark Lord? Or is it both of them?**** ** **I will leave it for you readers to decide.**** ** **Anyway, have a great day and see you all later with the next chapter.****


	63. The Gathering Clouds

**Chapter 62: The Gathering Clouds  
**

The bright blue and dark purple beam of light was visible for all to see for miles upon miles, everyone in Planeptune City could see it, even the nearby cities and towns could see it, including Haruno Village as well as the Dark Captains. But the ones who were, in a way, interested in the new development were the CPUs and their human friends, Blanc especially was curious about the bright and dark beam of light that looked like it was tearing the darkening sky apart. Lightning blazed through the dark clouds and thunder rocked the sky, it was what Victor the Wind Mage would call 'bad omens', and he had a good reason to believe that; nothing like this had been seen in Gamindustri since the end of the Ancient Era, not that anyone knew that of course. At any rate the display of raw power soon disappeared, leaving behind only a dark sky and many unanswered questions.

When the beam of energy disappeared everyone who was searching for Brian knew that where the site where the energy came from was their best option for finding him, and the closest group to that location consisted of Blanc, Neptune, Angel and Plutia – White Heart, Purple Heart, Wolf Heart and Iris Heart to be exact. The four of them were searching near northern Virtua Forest when they saw the bright blue and dark purple beam of light reaching into the sky, and there was hardly need for a discussion about where to head for next, although there were a few concerns. White Heart was sitting on a fallen tree that was laying across an ancient, broken stone road and was heading from east to west, when she saw the energy die away the Lowean CPU leapt to her feet and stared at the direction from where it came.

"There! That has to be where Brian is!" White Heart exclaimed, pointing where the bright beam of energy came from.

"Maybe. Then again, it could be the Dark Captains," Wolf Heart informed the Lowean goddess. "They could also be out here and might also be the cause of that display of power. If that is the case then I'll help check it out."

Purple Heart did not say anything, instead she stared at the direction of the powerful energy and grimaced, expecting to see some sort of new development at any moment. Iris Heart, meanwhile, was staring at the direction, a faint grin was on her face due to her seeing the immense power in north Virtua Forest, and she liked it. "Hmm, was that Bri-Bri? If so then he is becoming immensely powerful, I think he could even give you a run for your money, Angie," Iris Heart said, smirking at the wolf-like CPU, who was also her lover.

"Pfft, yeah right. Even if Brian is a lot more powerful now I can still beat him," Wolf Heart said to the sadomasochistic CPU of Ultra Planeptune, giving her a large grin.

White Heart growled and gave the two sadistic CPUs a glaring look, gripping her fists tightly. "Like hell someone like you, Angel, would bash Brian up. Brian is a lot more powerful than you realise, you'll find out when he crushes you one day."

"I'll like to see him try, for every time we spar I always win. Although, I could be just a little biased for all I know." Wolf Heart then became silent and leaned up against a nearby tree, contemplating something that no one could guess about.

"Anyway, let's go and check it out, let's hope that it isn't as bad as it looks," Purple Heart said, finally breaking her silence as she approached White Heart.

The Lowean CPU nodded and together the two senior CPUs began to walk in front with Wolf Heart and Iris Heart walking behind them, a couple of feet of distance was between them. The wolf-like CPU glanced at the Goddesses of Lowee and Planeptune, he noticed how White Heart seemed to be rather tense as her arm muscles were hardened due flexing her fingers around, her shoulders were stooped due to the stress, from what he could see of her face not long ago the Lowean CPU was completely and utterly worried. It almost made Wolf Heart feel guilty for what he told the Lowean goddess the day before concerning Brian, the wolf-like CPU now felt that he was wrong about the whole situation. Iris Heart, who was walking beside her lover, noticed the blaming expression on his face, his narrowed eyes and the way he bit his mouth tensed up.

"What's wrong, Angie?" Iris asked the young sadist. "You look a little concerned."

"Hmph, I guess you could say that. I am pretty sure Blanc hates me, although that's nothing new I suppose with how I convinced her to leave Brian alone and let him do his own thing, now look at what's going on. I guess you could say that I feel bad about all of this," Wolf explained, keeping his gaze firmly ahead of him until he finished speaking, to which the wolf-like god glanced around at the voluptuous, scantly clad goddess. "There's no need to worry about me of all people, I'm more than capable of making sure I'm alright."

Iris Heart giggled, smiling at the sadistic young man. "I know, you are a capable person. That is just one of the many things I love about you."

"Oh? And what are the other reasons, my dear Plutie?"

Iris Heart stopped and turned around fully towards Wolf Heart, a sadistic look was in her smirk. "Well, one of the other things I love about you is how marvellous you are in bed." She then swiftly wrapped her right arm around the young man's neck while the left arm found itself around his back, she brought herself into direct contact with Wolf Heart's body as her large breasts squished up against his chest. "You know exactly how to turn me on, and you're just like a machine when it comes to fucking the hell out of me."

Wolf Heart grinned, grabbing Iris Heart's ass and giving it a squeeze while he brought his lips into direct contact with his lover's, the two vied for dominance as they made out, their tongues snaked into each other's mouths as they moaned away. After a minute they pulled away for some breathing space before lunging forward again, both now had their arms around each other's necks and their moaning had begun to build up. Soon enough their lips and tongues parted, leaving a thick strand of saliva connecting from both their lips. Wolf swiped it away and grinned at the sadomasochistic CPU of Ultra Planeptune.

"As much as I would love to continue this we do have a mission to do," he told her, receiving a groan and a displeased look.

"Must we? I was hoping for some more action, and a whole lot of fun," Iris groaned, crossing her arms and standing tall before Wolf.

"I know, I wouldn't mind continuing this but we'll have to pick it up another time. After all, I don't think Neptune and Blanc will appreciate us lagging behind, as we already are." He then motioned for Iris Heart to follow him, to which she complied and together they walked side-by-side, hand-in-hand, their fingers entwined with one another. Iris glanced over at Wolf and gave him a loving smile, to which he returned with one as well.

 _Hmm, he seems to express a bit more emotion whenever he's in HDD, that isn't bad, not bad at all. Still, he's great in both forms – human and HDD. I wonder, does he prefer me in human form or in HDD?_ Iris Heart thought to herself for a moment as she and Wolf Heart did their best to catch up with White Heart and Purple Heart, who were so far up ahead that they could no longer be seen except for their footprints. "Hey, Angie, do you prefer me in human form or in HDD?"

Wolf looked over at Iris, confused at what she was asking him. "What do you mean by that?" he asked her, raising an eyebrow.

"Just answer already, Angie." The sadomasochistic CPU tightened her grip on Wolf Heart's left hand with her right, giving him a sadistic grin.

"Heh, alright then. Well, you are absolutely hot and sexy in HDD, I cannot deny that, plus you sure are quite stunning looking like that, your body is just amazing and not to mention your personality. Although, you are also very cute and adorable in your human form, and even if you don't look as mature as in your HDD I still love you like that," the wolf-like CPU explained honestly. "I hope that's a good enough answer."

Luckily for Wolf Heart it seemed that his lover was in a jubilant mood, she giggled in a seductive manner and pressed her large chest up against Wolf's left arm, engulfing the upper arm between her breasts. "That makes me happy, my dear Angie, thank you for being honest like that." They then continued on their way without interruption, although Iris Heart's mind was running all over the place. _I wonder, if the future for us is all bright and sunny, what will we be like? What adventures will he have? Would there be anything special for us in the future, no matter how far? Heh, who can say? Being with Angie, and having a whole load of 'fun' with him as my plaything, is good enough for me._

Wolf Heart glanced at Iris, wondering what she was thinking so hard about. "What's up with you now?" he asked, not expecting a proper answer from her.

"Oh nothing, just thinking about our future together is all, darling~" Iris Heart replied, grinning with a lustful look and a seductive tone. She had gotten into calling the young man 'darling' at times, surprisingly he did not seem to mind it at all. It was then that the sadistic CPU asked Wolf Heart something out of the blue. "What do you think our offspring would be like?"

"Huh? Offspring? Like a child? Why are you talking about that?" Wolf asked, bewildered at the question. "Do you want one or something?"

"I didn't say that, Angie, but I was just hypothesising if you must know," Iris explained. "Ever since that incident yesterday when we all thought Blanc was actually pregnant, to which we all now know that she isn't, I just was thinking about the whole thing. Whether I want a kid or not I have never though about, but I did think about what would happen if we did have one. Mmmm~… it would be Gamindustri's greatest nightmare! Mmmhehehehe…"

Wolf Heart chuckled, amused with Iris. "That could very well happen, and I am sure all of Gamindustri would quake in fear. Just let me know if you want to make that a reality."

"Will do. Hey, by the way, my feet are killing me. Care to carry me around, Angie?" Iris asked, smiling seductively at Wolf.

"You can fly, so just use your Processor Units."

"Hmph. You're no fun, I was hoping that you would carry me until we reached the site where all of that energy came from." Despite what she said, the sadomasochistic CPU did not seem to care whether she was carried or not. Iris Heart then flew into the air alongside Wolf Heart, a dissatisfied look was spread across her face as she flew side-by-side with her lover. "After all, I make a wonderful blanket and pillow."

"I'm sure you do, Plutie, I'm sure you do," Wolf said in response with a cheeky grin, his unnatural pointy, wolf-like teeth all bare to see. Alongside with the fur that was located around certain of his skin and HDD uniform, the sharpened claws and the way his bone structure seemed to be slightly edging towards a more mosster-like structure it appeared that the wolf-like teeth just made him even more creepier. Iris Heart, however, found it all to be rather compelling and, due to her sadomasochistic nature, alluring. As Wolf Heart and Iris Heart looked down at the ground they saw Purple Heart and White Heart, both were still walking together and appeared to be heading towards a large, open glade filled with ruined stone foundations and tiny walls, a large mountain range was there too. Wolf grimaced as they neared the site.

"Hmm? What's wrong, Angie?" Iris asked the wolf-like CPU, wondering why he was grimacing sternly and grimly as they lowered down to the ground.

"It's that location just up ahead, that area has the stench of death all over it. This is the same Ancient village that I told you about a few weeks ago. It's a queer place, hell, even Brian seemed different after the time we visited during a mission for some weird archaeologist from Leanbox," Wolf Heart replied. "Although, I have a feeling that whatever Brian didn't share with us he has shared with Blanc, that's probably just another reason why they're so close."

As they landed down behind the two senior CPUs of Lowee and Planeptune they entered the boundary of the ruined village, passing the two vine covered standing stones, the sense of dread quickly engulfed the four as they stood still. Even Iris Heart felt discomfort with being even in the village. But none were prepared for the mutilated corpses of the archaeologists that laid scattered around the ruins, it was as if a group of monsters had attacked them unawares and tore them to pieces for sport. Some of the still intact faces of the dead bodies indicated that the victims were in a state of absolute terror. White Heart grimaced sternly while Purple Heart cried out in shock and horror.

Wolf Heart growled quietly, his eyes gazing at the bloodied carnage that laid before them. "What the hell happened here? Who, or what, did this?"

"Monsters. What else would it be?" White Heart replied with a narky tone.

"I get that, Miss Grumpy Pants, I was just wondering what kind of monster did this."

White Heart, unaccustomed to name calling, snarled and glanced away as she walked through the ruined village, doing her best to ignore the mutilated and ripped up corpses as she passed from street to street. The other three in the group followed and soon caught up with the indomitable CPU of Lowee, who was now utterly tense as the prospect of what they would soon find, and wondering if there was any signs of Brian to be found. She soon got her wish as they came across the old market place, what they saw seemed to fit the evidence that Brian had been in the village as the ground was splintered apart and large cracks or fissures were all over the place, the nearby stonework had been assaulted by some form of pure and powerful energy.

"Brian's been here, that's easy to tell," Purple Heart declared as she stamped her foot around the cracks in the ground. "These were recent, probably just made a few minutes ago I reckon."

"Yet he isn't here," grumbled Iris Heart. "Tch, when I him I am _so_ going to have a lot of 'fun' with him. Hmm, I wonder how long he can stay hanging upside down? Or perhaps maybe dripping water onto his forehead? The possibilities are endless."

The Lowean CPU was not amused with the prospect of having her lover being the plaything of a sadistic CPU from another dimension, and she made her thoughts clear despite feeling a little afraid for her own safety around Iris Heart. "Oi! When we catch up with Brian you better stay away from him! No torturing, no 'fun or anything like that! Or else… or else… er…" White Heart would have continued if it had not been for the terrifying glare and grin she could see on Iris Heart's face.

"Or else what? What will do to me, Blanny?" Iris asked as she walked slowly towards the Lowean CPU, a hand on her hip and a whip appearing in her other hand. "Mmmm… maybe I'll have a little bit of 'fun' with you first."

Things would have escalated if it had not been for Wolf Heart. "Plutia, that's enough, just give Blanc some breathing space and leave her along. After all, if you were playing with Blanc whatuse would I be?"

"Hmm, you make a good point. After all," Iris walked back to Wolf, grabbing him around the waist tightly. "I have so much I want to do to you."

White Heart grimaced and glanced away from the two sadistic love-birds. "Ugh, can you to just leave that for later and away from me?"

Iris Heart looked back at the Lowean goddess, smirking as she did so. "Is that so? Well, it isn't like you and Brian are any different you know."

Before the two could begin to argue once more Purple Heart stepped between them, ending it before it could begin anew. "Just stop arguing already you two. We are here for Brian, not to strain our friendship." White Heart and Iris Heart looked at each other before glancing back at Purple Heart, nodding in agreement, the CPU of Planeptune sighed with relief. "Alright, that's better. Now then… huh? What's that?"

"What's what?" the Lowean goddess asked, looking over to where her Planeptunian counterpart was pointing.

"Over there in the ruins to the east, I'm sure I saw something odd, something… unnatural," the purple haired goddess replied. "It was blue and its form shifted with the wind, which is odd because there is no wind at the moment. I think I saw it head over towards that area over in the eastern part of the village, from what I can see from here it looks as if Brian has been unleashing the Share Energy within him to an extreme."

"Ghosts? Really? You're too old to believe in that kind of thing, Neptune," White Heart sniggered. "But anyway, might as well check it out just in case, could be something there for all we know. And besides, I do feel as if we're being watched by someone, or something."

The group silently agreed and they swiftly made their way eastward to where Purple Heart thought the elusive ghost was hiding around. As they walked onwards the group could clearly see the signs of the power energy all over the place as large burn-like marks were littered all over the ruined stonework and the ground was almost torn apart, fissures were spotted all over the place as they neared the shrine. As they passed the ruins of several houses the uneasy feeling would not go away, instead it seemed to increase, making the group wary of whatever was out there in the shadows of the village. As they neared the shrine White Heart thought she saw something blue wavering with an invisible wind move around nearby in the ruins, despite having a strong believe that ghosts do not exist she felt that her believe in that fact was heavily challenged, especially ever since Wraith revealed to her and Brian that he was an undead god. So with what was going on at that moment the Lowean CPU guess that there was some truth with the old ghost stories.

When the group arrived outside the ruined and scarred entrance of the shrine, large fissures were visible all over the place, making the ground uneven. Purple Heart sighed, coming to the conclusion that Brian was not to be found in the ruined Ancient village. "Come on, we better go now, it's obvious that Brian isn't here. Best we can do it to look throughout the rest of Virtua Forest before making our way to Haruno Village, hopefully they have some sort of sighting."

Before the group could leave an unnatural wind picked up around them, dust picked up and a ghostly wail flew through the air, the group stood back-to-back and materialised their weapons into their hands, ready for battle. To their surprise a battle did not occur, but instead something otherworldly happened. To White Heart's shock what appeared before them on all sides were not people but ghosts, pale, cold and deathly with distorted features, what utterly shocked the Lowean goddess however was how there was the ghost of a child. The Ancient ghosts had the CPUs surrounded almost five to one, yet they did not advance, instead they just stood still and stared at the intruders with cold and flaring eyes. The CPUs could feel the hatred that seeped from them. Eventually one of the ghosts stepped forward towards the group, a bent figure with a hood and a cloak, his face was mostly hidden and whatever could be seen of it showed an uncertain expression. He walked around the CPUs slowly, humming thoughtfully to himself, until he stopped and slightly backed off.

"So, not just one, but four CPUs appear, at the turning of an age," the old ghost said. "Tell me, what brings such hateful beings to our domain?"

"Hateful beings? What are you talking about?" Purple Heart asked, confused at what the ghost was implying.

"You really do not know? What has the world come to out there? Typical, it is to be expected from a bunch of so-called goddesses. Do any of you know anything about the suffering of our people? How the first of your kind slaughtered thousands of Ancients? How men, women, children and babies were butchered in cold blood? How our cities, towns and villages, or very homes, were burnt before our very eyes? How our people were enslaved and forced to build the cities and towns that endured till the modern era. Have any of you no knowledge of that?"

The four CPUs did not know how to respond to what the ghost had said, they were more or less confused with the accusations and had no idea what to do. White Heart, on the other hand, clenched her left fist tightly and stared at the ground, wondering if Brian knew about this. The old ghost noticed her tension, walking up to the blue haired CPU he stared sternly at her. "So, you _do_ know about all of the atrocities that were inflicted upon the Ancients," the ghost said, his tone cold.

Iris Heart and Wolf Heart remained silent, preferring to stay out of the conversation as it had nothing to do with them, due to Iris coming from another dimension and that Wolf was only turned into a CPU some time ago. Purple Heart and White Heart, on the other hand, were fully immersed with the conversation, whether they liked it or not. However, all were surprised about White Heart having knowledge about the history of the Ancients, especially their suffering. "Blanc, how do you know all of this?" Purple Heart asked her, she was the most baffled out of the entire group.

The Lowean CPU seemed to loosen up as she glanced at Purple Heart, ready to explain everything. "W-Well, Brian told me about some things a long while back while he and Angel over there were in Lowee for the first time, he was feeling kinda stressed so I got him to spill the beans. It turns out he had a vision the first time he was here, and he has been getting them eve since. Brian told me all about the Ancients from what he learned in the visions, how his people were all killed, how a young girl was killed by the first CPU, all by seeing through the eyes of his father. I don't think he told me everything, but I know quite a bit."

"I see, so Afagddu did tell you about our history after all. Highly unusual, yet to be expected when he had no idea about his true identity. Oh, and he was not seeing the past through the eyes of his father, in fact his parents were killed during the initial assault."

"Afagddu? Who the hell is that?" White Heart asked, the rest of the group also wanted to know what the old ghost was talking about. "And if he wasn't seeing things through the eyes of his father then who was it?

"Heh, I guess you not knowing this is the only thing I cannot blame you for. You see, the young man you know as Brian has another name, his true name to be exact. Who you thought was his father was none other than the one you call Brian, his true name is Afagddu, the last of the Ancients." The old ghost stood still as he explained everything to the group, more specifically White Heart, who was more than surprised with the news, especially hearing that Brian was around Gamindustri over two thousand years ago. But the ghost continued. "The child you see next to me is Claudia. She is Afagddu's friend from when they were younger, and I guess they still are in a way now that our emperor has regained all of his lost memories."

"Emperor? What emperor?" Iris Heart asked, her arms crossed in front of her. Out of the four CPUs she was getting tired of being in the conversation and wanted to end it as soon as possible, mainly because she was completely bored already. "Just tell us everything already before I die of boredom."

The old hooded ghost scoffed at Iris Heart, clearly unamused at her attitude. To the CPUs it seemed as if he grew with stature and flared more brightly than before, then the cold aura in the air seemed to build up around the group, almost making them shiver. "Do not test my patience, CPU. I may not be able to do much, but I can make you freeze to death if I want to. After all, I am a master at ice magic." The cold breeze died down and the hooded ghost became a bent, old ghost once more. "Now then, are we ready to continue? Good. Now, as for your question, we do have an emperor. Our emperor is Afagddu, whom you call Brian for whatever reason. He is our emperor, our Shadow Walker, our lifeline. He is the darkness incarnate and this world will be covered in his shadow."

White Heart snarled and stood in a defensive position, glaring at the old ghost as she bared her teeth towards the undead man. "No, not Brian. The darkness that is falling across this world is the work of Agandur the Dark Lord, not Brian!"

"That is somewhat true, but you fail to notice that Afagddu has a dark heart, it is in his nature to be as cruel and vicious as anyone can be, even more than the first CPU ever was. The Royal Blood that flows through his veins make him strong, the power of the phoenix has arisen within him and this world will be cleansed from all tyrants!"

"Dammit already! Just tell us where Brian is!" White Heart yelled, her thin patience had broken completely. "If you don't tell us I'm gonna smash you until nothing is left!"

"So, your patience has evaporated. So has mine. If you want to find our emperor then go out into the forest and look for him, but by the divines of old if you happen across him do not expect to hold a long conversation, he is not one for that any more." The old hooded ghost pointed towards the west, his tone was even colder and harsh. "Now leave this place and never return. Go, now. Except for that blue haired CPU, we need another word with her."

The group stared at White Heart and the old ghost, wondering what the undead being had to talk about with her. The Lowean CPU looked back at her companions, her expression grim. "Go, I'll catch up with you soon."

The group nodded, turned around and walked back to where they came from on the other side of the village to where the mountain range was located, hoping that White Heart would not take long while they looked around for some more clues. Meanwhile, the Lowean goddess glanced over at the old ghost, the child who was called Claudia was now standing side-by-side with him. Once the other CPUs had disappeared from sight the old ghost sighed and stared directly at White Heart, his expression still cold. "Now that they are gone I want to know a few things about you. First off, why are you so attached to Afaggdu?" the ghost asked.

"I'm not _that_ overly attached to Brian, but I… I love him, that's why I have to find him and bring him back home. I love him and he loves me. That's why," White Heart explained honestly, her mighty axe disappearing into thin air and a slight blush forming across her cheeks.

A displeased sigh emitted from the old hooded ghost, he did not seem pleased about what she had just said. He shook his head and slightly snarled. "Hmph. To think that our emperor would be infatuated with a CPU. A CPU and an Ancient together… how horrific. Have you two consummated your love yet?" The embarrassed look from White Heart was enough for an answer. "I thought so. It is depressing to hear that our recently anointed emperor is together with you, a CPU; I am not pleased with this news, but I trust in my emperor's judgement."

The child by the old ghost's side seemed less than pleased, in fact she appeared to be rather hateful towards the Lowean goddess. Claudia, the child ghost who was killed by Kurome over two thousand years ago, glared viciously at White Heart yet she did not say anything. At any rate, the blue haired CPU did not care, instead she wanted to know if the conversation was over and done with. "Are we done here?" she asked, her tone harsh.

The old ghost nodded, feeling content that he finally understood why his emperor had confided his knowledge to a CPU, although he still did not like the idea about Brian and White Heart being together in a relationship. "Yes, we are done. Oh, by the way, if you insist on going after Emperor Afagddu then give these to him." To the Lowean CPU's surprise the ghost managed to hand over to her two items: a faded orange, black and black stripped baseball hat and a long, white trench coat with several battle markings and the Lowean symbol on the back. "He left these behind after conjuring a whole lot of Share Energy, he then said, and I quote: 'I'm sorry, Blanc. I'm so sorry for what's to come'. I presume you must be this blanc he spoke of."

White Heart nodded and took the items, she could not understand why he left them behind however. Brian had worn the hat ever since his first day in Gamindustri and the coat was given to him by the Lowean CPU herself, she had invested much of her time in designing the coat before it was made by her tailors. White Heart almost began to cry as she held the two items close to her, hugging them against her chest. The red eyed CPU did not utter a single word, instead she turned around and walked away, the knowledge that she had finally lost the love of her life to the darkness in his heart, which she had tried so hard to keep under control, was almost too much to bear and tears began to flow down her cheeks. The ghosts keenly watched White Heart walk away with stern expression until she disappeared fro msight, which they then vanished into thin air.

The Lowean CPU arrived to where the rest of the group was located at the base of the mountain range, three homesteads were carved into the mountain range, although the middle one had dust flowing out of it. As White Heart approached the front entrance of the middle homestead/mine the rest of the group emerged with Wolf Heart at the head, he appeared to be a little excited which was an almost amusing sight. "There's a vault down in the mines, inside the vault there's this sort of armoury with all sorts of weapons, armour and books filled with some weird other language or some shit. For some reason one of the suits of light armour is missing," the wolf-like CPU exclaimed, pointing back towards the mine.

Purple Heart, however, was more interested in what White Heart was carrying. On further inspection she noticed that the items belonged to Brian. "Hey, Blanc, why do you have some of Brian's clothing? Did the Ancient ghosts give them to you?" The small goddess said nothing, instead she lowered her head and all could see the tears falling down her face onto the ground. The purple goddess walked up to her and stared worryingly. "Blanc? Are you alright? What's wrong?"

Once more the Lowean CPU said nothing at first, this time she placed Brian's hat on her head and put her arms in his white coat, deciding to wear it while in HDD. The Lowean trench coat was a little too big for her but she did not care, that and the hat was the only thing she had left of the young Ancient. The blue haired CPU then began to walk off, her expression grim and sad as she spoke. "I'm going to find Brian, and I am going to bring him back. I don't need you three to help me, I can do it myself. Tell Rom and Ram to stay safe while I'm gone."

White Heart then walked away from the group, ignoring Purple Heart's attempts to talk to her in order to get her back. The Lowean goddess disappeared into the dense woodlands of Planeptune, hunting an Ancient. As she walked into the dense forest the Lowean CPU felt something in one of the pockets of Brian's coat, she reached inside and pulled out a photo of her and Brian sitting together in a photo booth; it was the same photo that they had taken together in Lastation during their second date when Brian spoke of his fear of loosing everything while also forgetting everything. A swelling of feelings flowed through White Heart's mind as she clutched onto the photo tightly, tears ran down her face once more and stained the photo in her hands. As White Heart placed the photo back onto the coat she stared directly in front of her and a determined yet grim expression appeared. _Now all I have to do is think of a plan_ _._ _Bah, I prefer doing things like that in human form._ _I will find you, Brian, and I will bring you back, for your own safety_ _and ours._

* * *

As thunder blasted across the cracked sky two lone figures walked down a broken, torn apart road, run-down and collapsed buildings of all shapes and sizes adorned the area around them, the sky itself looked ripped apart and sick. The entire dimension appeared to be tearing itself apart by unnatural forces, and it was something that the two adventurers did not want to know about. One of the adventurers peered over to his right and looked at the ruins around him, from what his sky blue eyes could see there appeared to be a large tower in the distance that too appeared ruined, but not as much as the rest of the apparently abandoned city. He then glanced over to his left towards his comrade, a dark orange eyed man with an eye patch covering his left eye, a visible scar ran down his left cheek, a grim expression was across his face. Further away, in the north-east, from the two towards the left were even more ruined buildings, and what looked like smoke rose not far away in that direction.

"Should we go take a look over there?" the sky blue eyed man asked his companion, pointing towards the smoke.

"It's your call, sire," the dark orange eyed man replied. "although, I would still prefer to find the source of those two comets that crashed into us and separated Juvia away from us. The sooner we find them the better."

"Well, those two comet-like things did kinda head in that general direction, maybe the source of that smoke is where they landed." The sky blue eyed man, of obvious royalty, was hoping that his friend would be a little more open minded and just explore the destroyed city. Despite that, the sky blue eyed man knew deep down that he too did not want to fully explore the ruined city, for the level of destruction reminded him too much of his former home.

"Hmm, alright then, your majesty, let's check it out and see if we get any answers. Who knows, maybe we will find the natives, if there are any around that is."

With that the two men turned around to their left and began to walk down a ripped apart road that led past even more ruined buildings, they seemed to be even more destroyed than the buildings they had just previously seen. Instead of looking like business buildings they appeared to be more like houses, a broken down overarching road was nearby around what seemed to be an utterly destroyed highway to the north, large craters littered the urban area and the smoke was getting closer to the two dimension travellers. Both remained uncertain that they wanted to know what was going on over in that area.

The sky blue eyed man had black, short spiky hair, wore a steel chest plate with many battle scars that covered his entire upper body, a red tunic was worn underneath and reach to his upper thighs, a leather belt was around his waist that held a steel helmet with no visor, steel plates on the cheeks and the back, two thin, black feathers stuck out on the sides while a plume of thick, red feathers stuck out of the top all the way to the back of the helmet. Aside from all that there was also steel plates attached to the arms, legs and boots, a set of chainmail was worn also, an oval shield was strapped to his back, a steel sword hung from his waist and a ruby was carved into his chest plate. This was Uriel Caesar, the Ice Emperor of the now dead Imperial Empire.

The orange eyed man had mixed black and brown hair, a bushy goatee of the same colour, a black eye patch over his left eye and a scar ran down his left cheek, making it clear how he lost his left eye. He too was wearing a steel chest plate with many battle scars, a chainmail vest with sleeves, a leather belt, steel plated armour around parts of his arms, legs and boots, a steel helmet similar in design to his companion's was being worn by the one-eyed man, instead of a red tunic it was instead a blue tunic, a sword was hanging by his belt and a small, pump-action crossbow strapped to his back, a small quiver of crossbow bolts was strapped to the right side of his belt; if one was to take a closer look at the crossbow it appeared that it was enchanted with some sort of magical energy. This was Lucius Amullius, the greatest swordsman and fabled enchanter of the fallen dimension.

The two friends – one fallen emperor, another a pure blooded soldier – continued on their way to the site of the smoke, hoping to find some answers to their questions. Yet what questions were they going to ask to whoever they encounter? Even they did not fully know that. The further north-east they journeyed the more destruction they encountered, yet there was no sign of any life forms anywhere, which made the two men draw their weapons our of suspicion. Uriel clutched onto his sword tightly in his right hand while an icy mist formed around his left hand, Lucius held onto his enchanted crossbow with a bolt notched into it, both men stood side-by-side in a defensive position while moving forward.

"I don't like the look of this place," Lucius informed his emperor. "It's the perfect place for an ambush."

"Yeah, I get what you mean. I'm also concerned that there's no sign of life around here, it's almost too quiet," Uriel responded, holding his sword up. "Get ready for anything."

"Pfft. To think that we escaped one hell to another hell, the gods have truly abandoned us to our deaths. Well, at least the sky isn't raining daemon fire this time, I definitely do not wan't to deal with the Legion of the Damned again." The orange eyed man growled and kicked a brick aside from his path with his booted left foot. When he looked back at Uriel the Imperial could see the grief in his expression, the tears he held back with all of his might; the Ice Emperor was still traumatised from all that just previously happened. _I guess that would be the case. After all, the final fall of humanity in our dimension only happened a few hours ago._ Lucius thought, saddened that he could not do anything to save his world from the Damned Legion and their mysterious human-like leader.

Uriel said nothing, instead opting to remain silent on the matter. That was until they reached the site of the smoke. Once the two men arrived at the site they found the rubble of buildings that were torn down to their foundations and, to their shock, several monsters were now surrounding them with bloodthirsty intentions. To Uriel's and Lucius' horror the monsters they encountered look similar to those they had fought against back in their now destroyed dimension, at least most did. A few were floating in mid-air, had bone-like spikes sticking out of their backs, pointy teeth, glowing red eyes, several long arms and legs, large brown bodies and humanoid heads, all were hairless and creeped the hell out of Uriel. Lucius snarled and aimed his crossbow at the nearest monster, firing a bolt at the monster, it collided and went straight through its skull; fire burst from the bolt and vaporised the monster's head.

"Now then," Lucius snarled as he reloaded his crossbow with fire enchanted bolts. "Who's next?! Damn daemon fuckboys!"

Uriel, meanwhile, had charged forward and was locked blade-to-blade with two of the daemons, blocking each strike and sidestepping his opponents to slash at their vital points while dodging each strike. His left hand was fully engulfed in the icy mist, the air becoming cold as the icy mist began to move around the emperor and the daemons. As Uriel once again sidestepped one daemon and roundhouse kicked the other, sending it crashing into the nearby ruined wall, then came the magical attack that the Ice Emperor had been building up. " **Ice Glacier!** " Uriel exclaimed.

Uriel bent down to the ground and his left hand touched the ruined pavement, the ground swiftly turned into ice, spikes formed out of the ground and tore the earth apart, the two daemons he was fighting – as well as the others who were ready to enter combat – had their feet frozen. Lucius had jumped back to a safe position as the ground was covered in ice, he then began to pick off daemon after daemon with his crossbow, at least those that were not killed by Uriel's ice spikes in the magical attack. One of the daemons, however, broke free from the ice glacier attack and sprang forward at Lucius, but before the creature could tear its claws and fangs into the enchanter a sword pierced through the daemon's head, killing it instantly at green blood flowed out of the skull.

"You alright there, Lucius?" Uriel asked as he retrieved his sword out of the deceased daemon, sending the creature's body to the ground – which was now mostly free from ice.

"I could have handled that you know," Lucius informed Uriel, grinning as he did. "But nonetheless, thank you, your majesty."

"You don't need you keep calling me that, Lucius, you can just call me by my name. Anyway, I know that you're okay, at least physically from the looks of it." The Ice Emperor then began to breath in and out heavily as he fell to the ground, exhausted from all the energy he had spent throughout the entire day. Uriel had been fighting non-stop since the final bastion of humanity was besieged earlier in the day through to opening a portal to get his surviving friends and himself to safety then to the skirmish with the daemons just now, overall Uriel was completely and utterly exhausted.

"Just take it easy for now, we'll get moving once we've recovered our strength," Lucius told Uriel, to which the Ice Emperor sighed with relief as he leaned up against the ruined wall of what was once a home. But their quick rest was proved to be a bad idea. After a few minutes of resting the ground began to rumble, dust fell from their hiding places and crumbling walls collapsed, the dreaded sense of fear fell upon the two humans. Uriel wearily crawled up to a broken window and looked out to see something approaching them, a tall monstrosity that was taller than anything he had ever seen before.

It was a dark purple monster-like being, it had womanly features with large robotic breasts, light grey skin with dark purple and black armour-like features around its body, a grim expression adorned its face, a large helmet with a red visor covering its upper face was worn around the head, a dark orange circle with a thin white power symbol was adorning the helmet, large black and dark purple robotic wings sprang forth from its back, clawed gauntlets adorned the hands, its legs and feet were were armoured in similarity to its body, an orange circle with a bright white power symbol was positioned just below the neck. Neither Uriel or Lucius could tell whether it was a robot or a living being, but they did know one thing: it was coming for them.

Before either of them knew it the large monster-like creature smashed into the building, crushing whatever remained of the house. Uriel and Lucius rolled out of the way and avoided what could have been a sudden death for them, the one-eyed man swiftly got back onto his feet, reloaded his crossbow with lightning enchanted bolts and aimed at the monstrosity before him. But he could not see a weak spot anywhere; in fact the whole creature was larger than he thought it was upfront, it looked as if he reached the clouds.

In the end, as he ran around in an attempt to keep himself safe, the orange eyed man called out to his emperor for guidance. "Sire! I need assistance over here! I cannot find a weak spot in this bastard's defence!"

"Hit it in its jambags!" the raven haired man shouted in response.

"It doesn't have any jambags!"

The monster swiped its right arm through the ruins and destroyed what little buildings were left, however, this sent Lucius and Uriel flying in opposite directions from each other. The Ice Emperor crashed through the walls of a nearby apartment building while the enchanter smashed into the wall of a convenience store, he appeared to be alright from a distance though. But before Uriel could call out to Lucius the monster smashed the apartment building up, sending the rubble downward to the ground where Uriel was. The rubble collapsed all around the Ice Emperor as he attempted to escape, but to no avail as a small piece of the wall behind him fell on top, knocking him unconscious. The battle between the two men and the giant monster barely lasted a few minutes, and the humans lost.

* * *

"Dammit, this one's heavy, gonna break my back lifting this outta the way," a voice grumbled away as they moved aside the broken rubble and pieces of stone and brick, slowly showing the unconscious person beneath all of it. The voice spoke in a serious tone, it also belonged to a woman. "There, just a little bit more until I can see who the hell this is."

The man beneath the rubble, Uriel, regained consciousness and began to groan in pain, his eyesight was blurry and his throat was filled with dust and dirt. Uriel coughed loudly and tried to get up, his head swiftly collided with the rubble above him and sent him back down to earth, after that attempt he was too tired to move, the Ice Emperor then regained a part of his vision as he felt blood trickle down his nose. As the sky blue eyed man looked up he swore he was looking at the face of a woman. _Whoa, she's pretty cute. I had no idea that there were any natives around here aside from monsters. Gah! Grrrr, damn the pain!_ Uriel thought as an immense sting of pain erupted within his body, it felt as if he had broken a bone or two.

The woman had blood orange eyes and red hair with bangs covering parts of her forehead, sides and back, some of her red hair were tied on either side of her head and flowed down her body, two black triangle hair clips were located on the left side of her head. She was wearing an almost open white shirt with a grey belt and grey lining around the jagged edges, an orange tie with a white swirling mark, two white triangles and a black triangle clip, then there was the short grey skirt that was held up by grey and black suspenders; black fingerless gloves adorned her hands along with a black sleeve on her left arm and a small black and orange armband on her right, a square electronic device with a few buttons was strapped onto her left wrist, her boots were black with several circular objects adorning it.

The redhead moved more rubble aside until she saw who was buried underneath it all, and she was utterly shocked at the sight. "What? A human? That's impossible, there aren't any living here at all. This has to be a trick of the enemy." However, when the redhead looked at the pained expression that the sky blue eyed man was showing, and at the daemon corpses surrounding them along with what remained of the solid ice, she sighed and began to pull him out. "Well, even if it is a trick this guy looks to be in pain, and I can't let that go on. Stay still while I haul you out, got it?"

Uriel did not mutter a single word in response, instead he tried to keep the pain to himself as the redhead did her pest to pull the Ice Emperor out of the rubble, sweat fell down her face as Uriel was finally hauled out. The raven haired man was laid out on his back on the broken pavement, his eyesight had fully returned and was staring up at the dark purple sky as blue cracks formed all across it. The young woman, meanwhile, fell back and breathed in and out heavily before looking back at Uriel. "Damn, you're pretty heavy with all of that armour on," the redhead complained, rubbing her left shoulder. "The hell do you even need it for anyway?"

As Uriel was about to answer he spat out some blood onto the pavement next to him, then the Ice Emperor let out the pained cry he was trying so hard from emitting. The redhead jumped up onto her knees and looked worryingly at the man. "Shit! Do you have a broken bone or something?" she asked. When Uriel nodded weakly she sighed and began to fiddle with her electronic device before talking to it. "Hey, Umio, I need some of the guys who have knowledge in medicine down at the base."

"Very well then, but for what reason?" a soothing voice replied back.

"Found a human, at least I think he's a human, he's spilling blood out of his mouth and looks pretty damn beat up. I guess I now know what that monstrosity was fighting. Send the medics down now while the big bastard ain't here, I'm going to get this guy up to HQ as soon as I get him out of his armour." The connection was cut off and no more voices could be heard from the other side, meanwhile the redhead began to remove Uriel's armour, which was easier said than done. The steel plates around his legs and arms were easily removed, the chest plate was not so easy, in the end Uriel was propped up against the remains of a pole while the rest of his armour was removed, his splintered shield was cast aside while his sword was dented to hell. The Ice Emperor's helmet was badly dented as was his chest plate.

"There, that should do it. Now to get you to HQ in one piece," the redhead said. She slung Uriel's right arm over her while her left arm held him up behind his back and left waist, she could feel at least three broken ribs and a possible dislocated left arm. "Wow, you're worse off than I thought. Just keep it easy. Can you walk?"

"Y-Yeah, I can," Uriel replied weakly, moving his legs in sync with his saviour as they mad etheir way slowly down the road. "What… about my… armour?"

"Leave it there, I'll fetch it once I drop you off and make sure you're gonna be all right." She then turned her head around to face his, a smile broke out across her face. "Hey, by the way, my name is Uzume. Uzume Tennouboshi. What's yours?"

"Uriel. Uriel Caesar. Gah!" The Ice Emperor clutched his chest and spat out some more blood onto the ground below him. "Where… where is… Lucius?"

"Huh? Lucius? Haven't heard that name before. You're the only human I've met so far, at least I think you must be a human, you haven't tried to kill me after all. Now stop talking for the rest of the trip, you'll need the energy before the day is out." As they continued on their way Uzume glanced back at the man she saved and noticed something: he was crying silently and he had stopped walking, he had become limp yet clutched onto Uzume's right shoulder tightly, his eyes closed and his teeth grinding. The redhead gritted her teeth and began to pick up the pace, hoping to get to her headquarters before Uriel died, and to get some answers out of him when he recovered - _if_ he recovered.

* * *

 **A/N: Well, this chapter was just full of information and two cliffhangers, in my opinion at least. Will Blanc find Brian before something happens? Will Uriel Caesar the Ice Emperor survive? Is Lucius still alive? All will be answered eventually. On a side note, just imagining Blanc - or White Heart if you want to be technical - in a white trench coat with her nation's symbol on the back is kinda cool. Oh, also, I was glad to get Uzume into a chapter, about time I thought. Regardless, if you have any suggestions then please inform me and have a good day if possible.**


	64. Beginning of the End

**Chapter 63: Beginning of the End**

The afternoon swiftly passed, giving way to the yellow and red colours of the setting sun in the west shone over Gamindustri, the moon began to appear in the east as darkness soon followed at its own, slow pace. But in the dense woodlands of south Virtua Forest all that was covering the land was darkness, both natural and unnatural. A supernatural and creepy silence fogged the land; no birds, no noisy insects, nothing except for light breezes that would blow the leafs across the ground and into the air. Then came the slow, booted footsteps of someone nearby, crushing fallen leafs as they strode forward through the forest without breaking pace. The mere noise of the footsteps added to the overall creepiness, the uneasy feeling of death and destruction seeped to every part of the woods, a threatening aura overcame every living thing as the owner of the footsteps strode forth.

As the late afternoon sunlight shone forth through the treetops and bushy leafs of the tree branches, casting whatever light that came through upon the grassy ground and fungus covered tree trunks; it was a rather mesmerising sight. But for one young man it mattered not to him, he strode forward and trampled over all things that got in his way, whether they were leaf, branch, log or flower, caring not if anything got in his way. His body was lit up in a bright blue energy, lighting up the area around him as the young man strode forth, the flora around him began to fade away and disappear as the blue energy engulfed the plant life. The ground appeared to splinter apart as the young man's booted feet touched the grassy ground time and time again, Share Energy sprang forth from the newly created fissures.

The young man was wearing a dark coloured, steel helmet with thick steel plates that had embroidered Ancient markings of the phoenix fixed onto the sides and front of the helmet while being connected together; the wide sides stuck out into a spike on either side of his face, the steel above his forehead was in the shape of a phoenix head, a thin plate of steel covered his nose and stuck above his head in a spike. A set of brown leather armour with square paddings, a small phoenix emblem on the leather collar, chainmail sleeves, leather gauntlets, leather padded pants, a belt around his waist, boots and a belt carrying the last few throwing knives strapped across from his waist to his right shoulder was also worn alongside the suit of light armour. A necklace that belonged to Claudia the Lesser Ancient hung around his neck, a Roman Gladius was strapped to his left waist, a Lastation Armas Mecha Sword was strapped to his right waist and a dark purple blade – Gehaburn – was hanging from his back. The young man's eyes were flaring bright blue as was his entire body, the Ancient markings were burning all over his flesh; he looked like a candle flame that flickered in the wind.

So Brian the Shadow Walker, also known as Afagddu the Ancient Emperor, strode through the southern woodlands of Virtua Forest, bearing in a south-east direction in an attempt to find any Dark Captain or Dark Follower that happened to come across his path. The purpose? Information. The young Ancient was hoping to find the location of the hidden base of the Dark Captains, and the only way for him to do that was to find someone who worked for them. Although that was rather troublesome, for Brian could not find any despite remembering that Histoire informing him that the Dark Captains were sighted around Virtua Forest, and with all of the fresh corpses of the archaeologists strewn around the ruined Ancient village that meant that they had to be somewhere nearby.

 _Come on, there has to be someone out here who works for those bastards, they must have some sort of base in these woods. I'll just have to keep looking. Who knows, maybe I attracted their attention with all that power I displayed earlier._ Brian thought as he continued to stride forward without pause, crushing all underneath him with his booted feet. The young man's mind was racing with all kinds of thoughts, most were not kind and family friendly; there was one thought that kept running through his maddening mind. _Maim, kill, burn. MAIM, KILL, BURN!_

The young Ancient then stopped and rubbed his temples, a stinging pain ran through his head and he forcefully fell against a tree, leaning on it as a major and painful headache raced through his brain. Brian rubbed his forehead and growled, his other hand gripped a tree branch and almost shattered it with his tight, Share Energy engulfed grip. The young man shook his head violently and stood up straight, flexing his muscles and cracking his neck. "Damn it, I'm feeling weird in the head. This isn't normal. Does it have to do with my personality split thing?" Brian questioned himself, wondering if he was even sane any more. "Bah, whatever. I don't care any more. I have to do what I have to do, and I need to find someone who works with the Dark Captains."

The young man groaned as he began to continue walking, but the pain in his head never fully went away. As Brian strode through the forest he came across an open glade filled with large and small rock formations, a few small mounds of earth were tucked away nearby by one of the larger, jagged rocks, pointy rocks were acting as gravestones for each mound. As the Ancient made his way into the centre of the glade the young man looked around and noticed the small craters and what looked like something sparkling in the late afternoon sunlight, he walked up to the log in the lightly covered bushes and pulled out a rusty throwing knife with a shiny edge. It was one of Brian's missing throwing knives that he used against Agandur's Right Hand and Lothar the Bloodthirsty for the first time.

"Huh, so that means the mounds over there are the graves of the adventurers that me, IF and Nepgear found when we first ran into the Dark Captains and Wraith. This is also the place where that damn pale, yellow eyed Captain almost killed me," Brian muttered to himself, sheathing the rusty knife in a spare scabbard on the throwing knife belt. As the young Ancient looked back at the graves he heard the sounds of someone approaching through the bushes, the sounds of leafs and twigs being crushed were loud and clear to hear. _I gotta get undercover and see who it is,_ _I can not allow anyone to see me out here._

Brian ran into the woodland and hid behind a large tree, watching the stranger appear out of the forest and walk towards the graves, a bundle of flowers were in the person's hands. The stranger was a woman with long, dark green hair and magenta eyes, she was wearing a black jacket, a green shirt and grey jeans, a black leather belt was around her waist, two handguns were strapped to her sides. The woman bent down towards one of the graves and placed the bundle of flowers by the base of the middle gravestone, she then stood up straight and clenched her fists tightly, anger swelling in her eyes.

"I will avenge you, brother. I will avenge you and make sure the Goddesses get the punishment they deserve for not looking out for their citizens, for us," the green haired woman swore, blaming the death of her brother upon the negligence of the CPUs. "The Dark Captains have promised me a world free from self-serving, warmongering overlords, a world where all are equal, a world free from war. But we must fight for that, we must fight a war to have peace, and I will do my part. My faith is in the Dark Lord – he who is unseen yet who's influence reaches all."

 _Well, this woman has gone utterly insane, putting her faith in Agandur the Dark Lord and all. What a whore. The CPUs are not to blame for the death of her brother or whatever, the bastards she's serving are to blame, although I guess the goddesses can be blamed for hiding the whole incident. Meh, who cares? I for one don't._ Brian thought as he grabbed hold of Gehaburn, bringing the cursed blade to his side in his right hand. _Time to get info out of this Dark Follower bitch._

Brian emerged out of the forest and into the glade, lighting the darkening area with the burning Share Energy surrounding his body and eyes, the cursed blade in his hand lit up in a dark purple light. The green haired woman jerked around and brandished her handguns, aiming towards Brian's head, her eyes narrowed at him for a moment while her expression was filled with fear. "Wh-Who are y-you?! What are you doing?!" the woman exclaimed, clearly she was afraid of the Ancient. "Hold on, y-you're that Shadow Walker that's been on the news everywhere for the last few months. What are you doing here?"

"Information. Where are the Dark Captains?" Brian demanded, pointing Gehaburn towards the woman's neck.

"I will never tell an enemy the location of the saviours of Gamindustri, so go suck it!" the woman replied, firing her handguns at the young Ancient. To her complete shock the bullets never collided with Brian, instead it looked as if the bullets had disappeared at first glance, that was until she looked down at the ground. Two bullets cleaved into two separate pieces were lying in the small grass around their feet. The woman then looked up at the young man to see that he had moved slightly to his left while his cursed sword was held to his right; Brian had cut the bullets in half with Gehaburn in a mere instant.

"That was rude," Brian said, his expression forming into an evil grin. "Now, make me feel alive!"

The green haired woman yelled and opened fire multiple times, aiming directly at Brian's face and chest while the young man ran around the place, dodging the bullets due to his increased speed thanks to his Share Energy. "Stay still would you?!" the Dark Follower shouted as she fired the last bullets of her current magazines, but as she reloaded her handguns the young Ancient ran up and kneed her in the gut before bringing the hilt of his sword across her head, sending her down to the ground face first.

The woman groaned in pain as she attempted to get back up, but that was prevented by Brian, who stomped a booted foot onto her back. "Nuh-uh-uh, that's not how this works," Brian said, forcing the woman back down on the ground forcefully. "Stay there, you wretched Dark Follower, and tell me all that I need to know."

"Or else what? What happens if I don't tell you anything, bastard?" the woman asked with a harsh tone, almost spitting as she rose her head up out of the ground.

"Let me put this simply to you: I will set you free if you tell me what I want to know. That's reasonable, is it not?" He then applied pressure on the woman's back, the Share Energy around his foot seemed to increase, making it all the more painful for her. "So let me ask you this again: _Where. Are. The. Dark. Captains?_ "

After trying to resist for another minute the woman cried out in a bloodcurdling tone before responding. "Alright! Alright! I'll tell you! They're hauled up in Haruno Village, the whole place is occupied by Dark Followers and all have sworn their faith to the Dark Lord. There, you have the info you want. Are you going to let me go now?"

"Very well then." Brian lifted his booted foot off the woman's back and walked off slightly, but as she began to get back onto her feet the young man swept his right arm upwards, the blade of Gehaburn severed the woman's head from her neck in a bloody mess with one swipe. As Brian used the magenta eyed woman's jacket to clean Gehaburn a figure emerged from the trees behind him.

"Why did you do that? You promised to set her free," the figure said, their Welsh accent giving away who the person was.

"And I did. I freed her wretched head from her miserable neck," Brian responded coldly, turning around to face the figure. "Why are you here, Wraith? Trying to take me back to the Basilicom so I can be questioned relentlessly by Histoire and the others?"

Wraith shook his head. "No, that is not why I am here. Though I am sure you are aware that just about everyone you know is looking for you, especially Blanc. Last I saw back at the Ancient village she was completely distraught with what the ghosts had to say and give to her, now she's hell-bent on finding you and bringing you back. Blanc means a lot to you, doesn't she?"

Brian scoffed at Wraith and looked away. "You wouldn't understand it, Wraith. Yes, Blanc means a lot to me, but this is different. I have to do what I have to do, no matter the cost; I do not want Blanc to be a part of what is now to come, I just can't let her be a part of it for her own sake. You would never understand, Wraith."

The tall, hooded man chuckled as he remained still, ignoring the bleeding, headless corpse of the Dark Follower. "That is where you are wrong, Shadow Walker. Even a thousand year old god such as myself has feelings similar to those you and Blanc have."

The young Ancient stared back at Wraith, almost not believing what he was saying. "Hold on, are you saying that _you're_ in a relationship?"

Wraith nodded. "I guess you could say that I am, although it would be better to say that one of the people that make up the entity you call 'Wraith' is in a relationship similar to you and Blanc. I haven't seen her for over a thousand years by my prospective, she would have a fit if she could see me now."

"What's she like?"

"Feisty, to put it simply." Wraith chuckled again and began to walk away from Brian. "To think that Gehaburn would be the final straw for your personality split. Light and dark, both living side by side, but the darkness has taken over, poisoning the mind into madness."

"Whatever, light and dark mean nothing to me, all that matters is ending this crisis once and for all, no matter the cost. Now, if you will excuse me, I have a battle to go to." As Brian began to walk towards Haruno Village he stopped and glanced back at the tall, dimension travelling god. "By the way, thank you for watching over me when I first arrived on Earth, and for giving me the name 'Brian'."

Wraith smiled under his his scarf. "Your welcome, glad to have helped. Now, do what you must do. Good luck, Shadow Walker."

Brian nodded in response and walked away, re-entering the dense woodlands of Virtua Forest, a wicked grin formed across his face as he gripped Gehaburn tightly. The cursed sword began to speak to him, or more accurately the souls of the dead began to speak to him, especially the latest soul the sword had claimed. The voices filled his mind, calling out in cold and distant voices, always talking with the last words they ever spoke. The young Ancient could feel his mind start to be torn apart by the madness that seeped out of the sword, at least the light side of his persona thought so, the dark side within him thought that it was a completion. At any rate, regardless of what was actually going on in his mind, Brian marched towards his destination for what would change him forever. The right side of the Ancient Emperor's face lit up in an evil smirk while the left side of his face had a grieved look, as if he was already feeling guilty about something he was going to do.

"All things must come to an end, and I am bringer," Brian mumbled in a voice he did recognise as his own, the Share Energy around his body building up even more. "In order to rise one must fall. Blood for blood, life for life. I must do what I must do."

* * *

A quiet, almost creepy and unsettling silence reigned over the village of Haruno. As night set in the people of the village left the streets and ventured back to their homes, hoping to get some peaceful sleep. But not all went to their homes, some instead chose to venture to the small shriven that had been hastily constructed a few weeks ago. The shrine of Haruno Village, which was located in the south-west portion of the community, was unlike anything that had been seen in Gamindustri ever since Tari. It was smaller compared to the other buildings, had a rectangular structure to it and a small room inside where a stone alter was located, dried blood stained the stone alter. Yet this was no holy place for the Goddesses of Gamindustri, this was a place of worship to the unseen self-declared god: Agandur the Dark Lord.

Haruno Village was built in the style of Planeptune buildings and structural layout, the village was built up against a rocky plateau to the west where it was rumoured that miles of caves existed, the confines of Virtua Forest surrounded them on three fronts – north, east and south – making the residents confident in their defence, a farm was located just to the north along the border of Virtua Forest and a well was in the centre of the village. The buildings of Haruno Village were very similar to those found in Planeptune City; the buildings were of a light purple and creamy white colour, various gardens and pudding stores were littered around the small settlement, the village was mainly made up of houses and a few stores for food and clothes. The place seemed isolated from the rest of the country and only a dirt track connected the village to the rest of civilisation. The residents were normally kind-hearted and open to travellers.

But now, however, things were different. The coming of the Dark Captains and the actions of the Shadow Walker altered their thoughts, changed their actions and what they placed their faith in. At first the residents did not believe in what to think of the Dark Captains, at first they thought of them as terrorists who needed a place to call their own. But that soon changed thanks to Abnes and her propaganda campaign the people of Haruno began to change their opinions about certain thoughts, thanks to the 'little' blonde girl the residents began to see the Goddesses in a bad light due to their friendship with Brian the Shadow Walker, the destruction that occurred throughout Gamindustri wherever the young Ancient went was just another reason to shift allegiances.

As time wore on the minds of the people of Haruno Village turned from worshipping the Goddesses to worshipping the mysterious Dark Lord, and it seemed to have its benefits. The crops to the north were flourishing better than ever it seemed and trade was better than ever, although everything came with a price. For some reason, ever since Lothar the Bloodthirsty and Kharzark the Interrogator had died the people of Haruno Village had been receiving dreams involving different situations, many of which involved a dark shade with glowing red eyes surrounded by a dark mist, a harsh and cold voice called out from the mist and began to talk in a dead language. It did not happen all the time but it appeared to have some sort of effect on people's minds, making them dangerous and highly irrational; these people were the most zealously of all residents.

Things were slowly starting to get out of hand as everyone watched the immense display of raw power that Brian displayed earlier, the Dark Captains were by now known as the guardians of Haruno Village and the preachers of the Dark Lord, so when the people saw the concerned expressions they expressed towards the bright blue and dark purple beam of light made some people concerned t\for what was to come. As people converged towards the shrine of the Dark Lord the surviving Dark Captains stood in the centre of the village with several Dark Followers – the human ones at least – and began to discuss the situation.

"What are we to do now?" Severia the Stoic asked the Right Hand as she leaned up against a pole.

"Everything hinges on capturing the Shadow Walker alive for the return of the Dark Lord, we need him alive and no matter the cost," the Right Hand began to explain. "If he comes looking for us then all the better, but I have a feeling that he will come looking for us regardless. If the Shadow Walker brings any company with him then it will be one hell of a fight."

Severia nodded and looked over at one of the Dark Followers, a scruffy looking redhead with a quirky eye twitch and adventurer's outfit – a long coat with leather padding, pants and shirt along with fingerless gloves. The grey haired Dark Captain pointed over to the east where the dirt track began. "Go scout the area to the east and keep an eye on the road, if you see the Shadow Walker or anyone else approach inform us immediately," she ordered with an authoritative tone.

The Dark Follower nodded and ran towards the east to follow his new orders, meanwhile the remaining human Dark Followers began to disperse to other parts of the village, waiting for whatever was to come. Meanwhile, outside a café, were two people – or more accurately one person and one rodent. The person was a small, blonde girl who looked younger than she should and was wearing a frilly pink dress, this was Abnes. The small, black rodent with the strange multicoloured love heart on the end of his tail was Warechu. The two were standing by the café sign when they saw several Dark Followers run past them.

"What the heck is going on?" Abnes asked absent-mindedly, eyeing several of the soldiers who ran past to see what was going on.

"Maybe it's another drill or something. No need to get worried over it, chu," Warechu responded, his arms crossed and a serious look on his face.

"I would if I were you," a flamboyant voice called out to them from nearby. Abnes and Warechu glanced over to their left and saw the last person they expected to see roaming around at night: Anonydeath, the robotic hacker – at least they presumed he was a robot, although they had heard a rumour that Anonydeath was indeed a human inside a robotic suit. "The way I see things I believe that is it best for us to get out and be far away from this place as soon as possible, it isn't going to be family friendly soon."

"What do you mean by that, chu?" Warechu asked the Lastation hacker.

"Didn't you see the display of power earlier today? If that wasn't a good indication then I don't know what is. Things are going to be very serious sooner or later, and I do not want to be around when that happens. I'm out of here before things get crazy. See ya later!" And with that Anonydeath used the obscure, small jets built into his robotic suit to float away down the street, passing by random, Dark Lord worshipping citizens.

Abnes and Warechu glanced at each other, concerned about what Anonydeath had just said. They then looked back at the scene that was playing out before them as people roamed around and as Dark Followers began to set up in various positions, they even saw Severia the Stoic walk off towards the west where the caves were located. The two of them looked back at each other and silently agreed to get the hell out of there before all hell broke loose, they quickly made their way down the street and followed Anonydeath southwards out of the village, getting to a safer position at the southern most end of Viruta Forest.

As the three of them disappeared southward Severia headed towards the cave system to gather the mutated soldiers and creatures that the Right Hand had created, they were to be released when needed so the most stoic of the Dark Captains was going to make sure that everything was on standby. When Severia arrived at the cave entrance she saw Henderson – the cybernetic enhanced soldier – standing by the cave entrance, smoking a cigarette and absent-mindedly ignoring everything around him. Arfoire was nearby sitting on a rock and paid no heed to either Henderson or Severia.

"What are you doing?" Severia asked, not pleased with the boredom she could see in his eyes.

"Watching over the entrance to this damn cave," Henderson replied, sighed in boredom after he took the cigarette out of his mouth. "Hell, this is boring. Wish something would happen already."

"The way things are going back in the village I think you just might get that wish. Regardless, I am here to make sure that the Right Hand's creations are ready for battle soon. Here, take this." The former Pirate Queen handed the cybernetic former Lastation soldier a grey walkie-talkie. "I'm still not completely sure how to use this… thing, but apparently if I talk through it on my end you can hear it from your end. So then, if you hear me calling you to unleash the monstrosities that the Right Hand unfortunately created then you will do it. Understood?"

"Crystal clear," Henderson replied. His cigarette had died away and the last remnant of it was squashed underfoot. Just then a commotion was heard back inside the village, raised voices were heard which caused Severia and Henderson to look eastward back towards Haruno.

The grey haired Dark Captain sighed and turned around to go back to the village before glancing back at the black haired, former soldier. "Keep an ear out for any further orders. Good luck." Henderson nodded in response as the female Dark Captain headed back to Haruno Village proper, lighting another cigarette as he was left alone by himself.

As soon as Severia the Stoic returned to the centre of the village she encountered Agandur's Right Hand directing Dark Followers around, pointing to various areas in the village, a serious look adorned his face. The dark hooded, black steel helmeted man looked over at Severia and approached her. "He's coming. The Shadow Walker is near," the Right Hand informed her. "The scouts just informed me that he is close to Haruno Village, he's coming from the north-east covered in Share Energy. The plan is to let him tire himself out by sending all of our Dark Followers against him, then the ritual can begin."

Just then the redhead Dark Follower with the quirky eye twitch ran up the street towards the Dark Captains, a frightened expression was across his face. "He's here! The Shadow Walker is here!" he shouted, waving his arms around to get their attention, and it worked. Citizens who were nearby started to pay attention, a sense of dread and anger began to rise from everyone as their faith in the Dark Lord manifested in their minds, the darkness that seeped from the Corrupt Energy that flowed from the Dark Lord's influence heightened their emotions and made them all the more dangerous.

Agandur's Right Hand unsheathed his longsword and looked over at the bright blue energy coming towards them. "So it begins," the Dark Captain muttered as he readied himself for battle.

Brian approached Haruno Village and immediately saw numerous people armed to the teeth with all manner of weapons including swords, spears, all sorts of guns and even their fists with steel encased knuckles. They were ready for a fight, a very bloody fight. The young Ancient continued to approach the village without a care in the world; his eyes and body flared up even more brightly than before, lighting the darkness in bright blue while Gehaburn lit up a small patch of darkness in a dark purple light. The young Emperor glared viciously at his opponents-to-be, eyeing each and every one of them with the intent to kill, just as they looked at him in the same way. Brian sighed and held the cursed sword before him, ready to slaughter anyone who stood in his way of total annihilation. The battle had begun.

There were no words shared between the Dark Followers or Brian the Shadow Walker, instead glares were exchanged before the sounds of gunshots were heard as bullets came flying past the young man. None found their mark, some were even sliced in half by Gehaburn. There were also a few crossbow bolts flying past, one even skidded just above Brian's right shoulder and almost made contact with his armour. With an unnatural growl the Ancient surged forward with Gehaburn held tightly before him, his eyes were targeting the small group of Dark Followers who had set up a small barricade at the supposed entrance of the village. Brian dodged another few bullets and bolts before he arrived at the barricade, the young man ran onto a pile of tyres and jumped over the barricade, slicing off the heads of three Dark Followers in a single blow.

"Now then, who's next?" Brian asked in an inhuman way, his voice sounding distorted and out of place as if it belonged to another person entirely. His Ancient styled leather and chainmail armour was already splattered with the blood of his deceased foes, a small splatter of blood had made its home on the young man's right cheek.

The nearby Dark Followers who had fortified themselves in certain areas looked at each other and made their last wishes, tightened the grip on their weapons, grimaced grimly and, with the corrupt promises of the Dark Lord filling their mind, charged forward with the intent to kill. The Ancient grinned malevolently and met them head-on. Both sides clashed in a furious fight to the death; blade against blade, fist against fist, it was a bloody fight. Brian swirled Gehaburn around him in a furious swipe, managing to severe the arms off two Dark Followers while almost upper cutting another. The Ancient parried an oncoming battleaxe with his cursed blade before tripping the Dark Follower over onto the ground, the young man then brought a booted foot onto his fallen opponent's face and crushed their skull.

By now all of Haruno Village was aware of the slaughter that was occurring just outside their entrance, and that was of no comfort to them. Some citizens retreated to their homes and the shrine while others merely stood around eyeing the battle, cheering and yelling. Although that was all soon to change. The Shadow Walker turned around after piercing Gehaburn through the chest of an unfortunate Dark Follower and stared viciously at the people of Haruno Village, an evil grin formed on his face as several more Dark Followers appeared.

"Let's make this interesting. **Shattering Earth!** " Brian shouted, stabbing Gehaburn into the paved ground, initiating one of his most destructive and unpredictable attacks. Large fissures of Share Energy burst through the ground and into the night air, lighting it up in bright blue. The fissures opened up violently and shook the ground, it was as if an earthquake had suddenly hit the village out of nowhere. The destructive fissures and Share Energy that burst forth from it destroyed the very land itself while tearing apart the buildings of the village, people were killed as structures fell and cracked apart, others were simply awestruck with what they saw. They had seen this attack a long time back in Planeptune City, and that was pretty destructive. This time, however, it seemed that the Ancient had managed to control it better – a bit at least, it still appeared out of control.

People screamed and ran, or stood and fought against their bloodthirsty and vengeful Ancient foe. Either way death came to them all. Brian the Shadow Walker, the last Ancient and Emperor of the dead Ancients, carved a bloody path through the people of Haruno Village; both citizens and Dark Followers were at the mercy of the young man, and he showed no mercy. As Brian stabbed his sword through the neck of some random person with his right hand and unsheathed his Gladius with his left hand the remaining Dark Followers retreated towards the centre of the village, the citizens ran towards the shrine of the Dark Lord in the hope of some form of divine protection.

Agandur's Right Hand held onto his longsword tightly and approached Brian; the Dark Captain's plan was starting to come together, although he had not predicted the bloodshed that would happen or the amount of destruction that erupted. The dark helmed hooded man stood still and glared at Brian as a wicked grin broke out across his face, the time for Agandur the Dark Lord's return was nigh. The Ancient and the Dark Follower stared at one another as they both stayed still, waiting for either one of them to make the first move. Then they lunged forward with astonishing speed. The two men clashed blade to blade at a furious rate, sparks of steel flashed through the night sky as they fought to the bitter end. Brian sidestepped the tall Dark Captain and brought his Gladius across the Right Hand's right arm while Gehaburn kept the longsword of the Right Hand at bay.

"This is getting annoying," the Right Hand muttered as he broke away from his opponent before throwing a knife at the Shadow Walker, the small steel blade collided with the young Ancient's left waist, but it appeared to have no affect on him.

As the two clashed blade to blade once more, sidestepping each other and slicing their swords across different places on their bodies Severia watched them, staring at the two as people ran for shelter and Dark Followers regrouped. The former Pirate Queen sighed and reached for her walkie-talkie, pressed a button and placed the electronic device near her face before speaking into it. "Henderson, I need you and Arfoire to unleash the monstrosities that the Right Hand had created in the underground caves, we need them to fight the Shadow Walker now," the grey haired Dark Captain ordered. Static erupted and lasted for a few minutes before a reply was heard, and it did not sound good.

"… Gah! Damn it! Damn it all to hell!" Henderson yelled, his voice distorted due to the frequency, then a rumbling sound broke out. It sounded as if another mini earthquake had broken out, but this time it sounded more like a landslide than anything. Severia looked over towards the entrance of the caves and saw large dust and dirt storms occurring over in that direction; that was when she heard Henderson call out a name through the walkie-talkie. "Wraith."

 _Wraith? Oh shit. That ghostly bastard must have caused the rocks above the cave entrance to collapse, sealing all those crazy creations inside with nowhere to go. A mixed blessing to be sure. I'll have to let the Right Hand know and send the rest of the Dark Followers in to aid him, Henderson and Arfoire are on their own – if they are still alive._ Severia thought as she rushed towards the centre of the village to gather the surviving Dark Followers. She approached them and beckoned them to follow her towards the Shadow Walker, initiating the Right Hand's plan.

Meanwhile Brian and Agandur's Right Hand fought, clashing their blades against each other in a frenzied duel, neither one of them giving up as fire began to spread across the village, burning all as it moved. Agandur's Right Hand brought his longsword up into the air and struck downwards. " **Light's Bane!** the Dark Captain shouted as his sword lit up in an unholy aura.

Brian held his Gladius up in an attempt to block the attack while the cursed sword would strike a killing blow, but that never happened. Brian's Gladius splintered into two pieces; the upper blade fell to the ground while the hilt – which still had a small part of the blade on it – was still in Brian's left hand. The longsword of the Right Hand continued on its journey and sliced into the young Emperor's left arm, the chainmail barely absorbed the impact and blood began to flow from the wound. It was enough to send the Ancient to the ground with a bloodthirsty look on his face as he involuntarily dropped Gehaburn.

"Now is the time for the return of the Dark Lord," the Right Hand muttered to himself. "But, just to make sure that you will not resist. **"** **Savage Lightning Storm!** "

A magical rune appeared in the sky above them and large shards of lightning struck downwards in the young Ancient's direction. The young man lit up like an electrical rod that was struck by heavy and deadly bolts of lightning; Brian would have yelled in pain but could not find the power to do so, he could feel the bolts of savage lightning surging through him and he swore that he could feel his flesh start to burn. Eventually the magical attack stopped and the young man fell face first into the ground, smoke rose from his almost unconscious body. The Right Hand of Agandur grinned and beckoned two Dark Followers over to pick up the Ancient and drag him over to the shrine. As they did so Severia the Stoic ran up to the Right Hand, her expression was grim.

"We've got a problem over to the west," she informed him, pointing over to where the cave entrance was located. "I just heard from Henderson that the caves beneath Haruno Village have been closed off by Wraith. I do not know what has become of either Henderson or Arfoire."

The Right Hand snarled and rubbed his temples. "Dammit! Just what the hell am I going to do without those soldiers?! We need them for when the Dark Lord returns so he can cover this world in his shadow." After sighing and shaking his head the leader of the Dark Captains looked back at Severia. "So where is Wraith? We need to keep him as far away as possible."

As the stoic Dark Capitan shrugged her shoulders a ghostly shadow ran across the undamaged and damaged roofs of the village buildings, then the figure landed on the ground and rose a gloved palm towards the Dark Followers who were around Brian. " **Piercing Stalagmite!** " the ghostly stranger shouted. The earth under the unbroken and broken pavement splintered apart as large and sharp spikes of rock smashed through the ground or out of the man's hand, the Dark Followers did not stand a chance as the sharpened rock pierced through their flesh and impaled them, blood trickled down the spiked rocks as the corpses appeared to levitate from a distance. The mysterious stranger then approached Brian and helped him up onto his knees.

"Feeling better, Shadow Walker?" the man asked, his accent making clear who he was.

"Wraith?" Brian muttered, his eyes half closed due to the pain that radiated through his body. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Heh, did you forget the Prophecy of the Shadow Walker? _Your_ prophecy? Do you remember the line: ' _When the present and the future stand to do battle_ '? Well that is what I am here for; I am the future," Wraith informed the young man. Together they stood up and faced what was left of their enemy. "Are you ready for what's next?"

"Are you?" Brian responded, grabbing Gehaburn in the process.

Before either of them could even begin to rush towards their enemy they were attacked by a figure flying in the night sky – to be exact it was Wraith who was attacked, Brian was knocked back onto the ground. The God of Time was sent hurdling into a nearby wall, leaving his mark on it as he slide down. Next thing Wraith knew he was picked up and thrown across the village, when he crash landed onto the splintered pavement the tall man looked up to see a bloodied Arfoire wielding her spear; the anti-CPU was in her HDD-like form and glared savagely at Wraith.

"You're dead," Arfoire snarled as she raced towards her prey.

"Not if I get you first," Wraith mumbled as he summoned his ghost sword and fought in a bloody duel with his opponent. As Wraith sidestepped and brought his blade up against the shaft of Arfoire's spear, both competitors glaring at each other, the dimension traveller glanced over at Brian and saw him being dragged off to the shrine, it also appeared that Severia the Stoic was approaching with her trident firmly in her hands. _Shit, this is going to get ugly. I gotta deal with Arforie quickly and get over to Severia so I can end her._

Wraith dodged one of Arfoire's attacks by ducking beneath the it and tripped the gothic witch onto her back, he then leapt for Severia. The two became locked in a battle for survival, both doing what they could to kill the other, neither of them giving up. Wraith ducked and weaved as he blocked blow after blow while simultaneously slicing at whatever his ghost sword could get at. However, as they continued to fight Severia managed to back Wraith into a corner down in an alleyway, a leaky pipe distributed small pools of water onto the ground aside them. Trident and ghostly blade clashed time and time again, sending sparks of steel around them. Severia swung her trident at Wraith and elbowed him in the face before hitting him against the wall. She grinned and extended her left hand towards the water, making the liquid rise to her.

"You will die tonight, Wraith," Severia declared, the water surrounding her, shielding the Dark Captain before being unleash into a deadly weapon. " **Tsunami Strike!** "

The water rose high into the air and collided with Wraith, the force was incredibly strong, so strong that it smashed the former Oracle through the back of the alleyway and out onto another street. As Wraith crashed through the stone walls and out onto another street he felt his forehead and saw blood. Blood. It had been a long time since he had seen his own blood, it almost drove the ghostly man over the edge. He got back onto his feet and growled at Severia, who had now arrived with a victorious look on her face. "Now then, time to die!" Severia yelled as s he charged forward with her trident pointing directly towards Wraith's chest.

As Severia lunged forward with the intent to kill she saw her opponent move suddenly and with great speed. Wraith ran around the Dark Captain in circles, confusing her completely. She spun around in circles with her trident, attempting to hook the Ancient God of Time on the points of her long weapon. But that never happened. Instead she was subjected to the brutal and vicious attacks of Wraith, who's own rage was starting to unleash. The former Pirate Queen was slashed and hacked all over her body, blood trickled down from her deep wounds onto the ground; flashes of bright blue, red and dark purple swirled around as Wraith continued his onslaught. Armour cracked, blood flowed and anger became personified in the way their weapons slashed across each other. Severia growled and bellowed in a loud voice as she swung around with her trident, then she got lucky.

The grey haired Dark Captain swung her trident around and collided it with Wraith, she hurled the tall man into another wall and lunged forward with her trident, the pointed edges aimed directly at the man's head. But it never made its mark. Wraith sprung forward and tackled Severia to the ground, then the former Tari Oracle materialised a ghostly short sword and stabbed downwards. Wraith continuously stabbed Severia over and over again with his short sword, piercing through her steel breastplate repeatedly. Blood splattered everywhere, on the rest of Severia's body as well as Wraith's. As the tall, ghostly man stabbed the Dark Captain one last time he twisted the blade around in a full circle and ripped it downwards until he tore the sword out of her gut.

As Severia choked on her own blood as she passed from the world of the living Wraith bent down and began to whisper into her right ear. "Send my regards to your twin brother in hell," he told her before standing up and ran towards the shrine.

Severia the Stoic coughed out some blood and began to pass away. As the former Pirate Queen died she said only one thing. "My life for the Dark Lord. A father you were to me, and you always will be." Severia the Stoic, the Pirate Queen, was finally dead. The power of the Dark Lord flowing through her left the body and disappeared into the air.

Agandur's Right Hand was holding one of his knives with his arms in the air, some sort of ceremony was occurring. Brian was restrained in front of the alter in chains, blood had been painted all over his flesh in some sort of old and dead language; it was not in the Ancient Tongue, instead it seemed to look more corrupt and the complete opposite of it. Dark Followers and citizens surrounded the Right Hand, Brian and the alter, chanting in a long forgotten language. Then the Right Hand stepped before the Ancient, a gleeful look in his eyes, he then began to chant in the same language as the others. A few nearby Dark Followers were standing nearby and were holding the Share Energy Containers, they opened the Ancient boxes and the Share Energy within them flew into the air, surrounding the young man as they began to glow red.

In the Common Tongue it went as such: _"_ _In the name of the Dark Lord, Agandur the greatest Lesser Ancient of old,_ _may his soul return to this world and rule all before him._ _May this body be a worthy_ _vessel for his return, may_ _this man be the next body of the Dark Lord_ _and may he do what he must do._ _A sacrifice of blood filled with the Dark lord's power must be spent before all may happen._ _May the world be forever changed, and may the Dark Lord_ _cover the world in his darkness."_

Then, to the amazement and shock of Brian, the Right Hand held the knife to his own neck and slit his throat, sacrificing himself and giving the last vestiges of the Dark Lord's power to the Void and to the Share Energy surrounding the young man. Brian lit up in blood red and yelled out in pain as he felt something, or someone, force its way into him. A beam of red energy engulfed the young Ancient and burst up through the ceiling into the night sky, lighting it up. The blood marks were blazing in a fiery light and burnt into the skin, increasing the amount of pain he was feeling. If anyone was trying to find Brian they would know where to look.

Just as Wraith burst through the door he bore witness to the return of the one he had fought against for several years: Agandur the Dark Lord. Brian exclaimed out in immense pain as he felt his body and mind be torn apart from within, he attempted to move despite the chains restraining him, but he could not do so, instead he remained on the ground and continued to bellow in a voice that was not his. The young Ancient's eyes lit up in bright blue Share Energy and dark red Corrupt Energy, then an explosion happened. Everyone who was still alive in the shrine was blown back across the ground and outside as the different types of Share Energy nestled together inside Brian while the Dark Lord seeped into him, taking over the young man's body and life. The mixed energy piled together before exploding, destroying the shrine.

Brian stood up, his chains now turned into ash, and gazed at the destruction before him. His eyes were red with Corrupt Energy, his body was covered in the two different types of Share Energy, and an ungodly grin was on his face. When he spoke his voice was different, harsh and cold. It was the voice of Agandur the Dark Lord, for he had taken over Brian's body and soul. "Finally… I am alive. I have returned in the flesh, and quite a young body at that," the Dark Lord said, flexing his hand muscles while looking over himself. He glanced over at what was once the entrance to the now utterly destroyed shrine and saw his most hated enemy. "Wraith… I thought I could smell a bastard around here. Time to make my first kill in this boy's body."

Wraith grimaced grimly and materialised his ghost sword, when suddenly he almost fell to his knees and held a hand up to the side of his head as a headache broke out, the God of Time growled as he attempted to rub the pain away. He looked down at himself and noticed that he was slowly starting to fade away into nothing. _No, this is isn't good, not at all. I can't let this go on. My life is tied with Brian's future, if he dies now then I also die – no, I will no longer exist and time will be rewritten._ _I must act,_ _I must save Brian and keep our future secure,_ _even if he is going insane_ _!_ _Without him there will be no me._

The two glared at each other before pouncing at one another over the battle scarred village. The Dark Lord had retrieved Gehaburn and used it as his own weapon while Wraith used one of his many weapons in his arsenal – a sword made of pure ghostly energy. The two clashed blade-to-blade, sidestepping and ducking as they fought it out amidst the soldering ruins of Haruno Village, neither one of them giving up, for both had too much on the line and had to risk it all. It was truly a sight for the survivors as they saw the one they worshipped inside the body of the one they hated most battling it out against the mysterious figure they only heard rumours of from Lowee and Lastation. Both were highly skilled with swords, yet neither were able to land a blow- in Wraith's case this was because he did not want to damage Brian's body. This stalemate soon changed as Agandur swiped his new body's left arm sideways and unleashed large bolts of Corrupt and Share Energy, it hit Wraith straight across the chest and sent him hurdling against a tree, the force almost sending it down to the ground.

Agandur approached Wraith and held Gehaburn over his head, ready to strike a killer blow. "This is it, finally you will die and I shall take inheritance of this world. Kurome would be pleased with me, if she were here to say it." But as the Dark Lord swung downwards to finish off Wraith he stopped as a bright blue energy began to engulf him, then Brian's voice spoke.

"Wraith, you've gotta get the Dark Lord out of here!" Brian said to him, his voice distant and ghostlike. "I've retaken some parts of my body, but that won't be the case for long. Just get this over with!"

Wraith nodded and got back onto his feet before lunging his right hand forward onto the man's head, the former Oracle's right hand was glowing bright blue as he began to search through Brian and Agandur's combined mind. The combined entity let out a painful bellow and tried to move as Agandur retook control over the muscles, but that never happened. Instead, a bright blue light enveloped around the two as Wraith began to separate Brian and Agandur; the young Ancient began to retake his body as a red shade split from the Ancient, shouting and yelling in a harsh and cold voice. Then another energy explosion broke out, sending a beam of bright blue, red and dark purple into the night sky, piercing the clouds as thunder and lightning struck. Brian and Wraith were sent hurdling backwards onto the broken ground the red, glowing shade of Agandur the Dark Lord rose into the air and disappeared into the night, but what he said concerned the young Ancient.

"I will not be broken, I will not be bound, I will return and destroy all who stand before me. Let this world know that the Dark Lord has come, and he brings with him the end of an age. War shall come!" Agandur said, his harsh voice disappearing into the night.

Wraith stood up and checked to see if he was fading away, to his joy he was not, the tall man then glanced over at Brian to see him starting to get back onto his feet, albeit a lot more angrier than before form the look of his expression. Before the God of Time could get near the young man he was tackled by an overly zealous Arfoire, who was in no mood to even say or utter a word as she engaged Wraith in combat once more. The former Oracle punched the gothic witch in the face and sent her away before he kicked her across the head, drawing even more blood from her already bloodied nose and mouth.

"Had enough yet?" Wraith asked the witch, glaring intensely at her. But before he could land any further blow to her he was stopped by a painful headache, at least it looked like a headache to people, in reality one of the seals within him was breaking, and the one who was breaking out of the seal had other plans for Wraith and Arfoire – it was the mad woman sealed within him. She had not broken free from the seal, but she could reach out and take control for a very short while, and that was what she did. Wraith growled and rubbed his head, combating the battle that was going on within him. _What? What the hell? No, not now, not now!_

Then the mad woman began to talk to him in his mind, filling his already pained head with all manner of thoughts and memories. _It's about time I got some control over this_ _body, at least some part of it._ _Time to have some fun._

 _What? No!_ _Stop this at once! I know what you are doing, you bloody, old, mad woman!_ _I cannot allow you to reshape time as you see fit._

As Arfoire swung and jabbed her spear at Wraith he continued to battle it out with the mad woman inside his mind, in the confusion the mad woman within Wraith took control over his right arm and suddenly opened a dimensional portal after summoning the strength to create it, then as the God of Time retook control over his body he and Arforie fell into it and sped into the Void. The portal closed quickly after them. They became shooting stars, comets in space and time; glittering stars in the far distance twinkled in a bright light before dimming out into nothing. All seemed calm despite what was going on, yet that was not to be the case for much longer. The comets of Wraith and Arfoire collided with three other racing comets, setting all of them off course.

One comet raced off to the Hyperdimension while the other four sprung out of control towards another dimension. As they entered the dimension the four comets split off into two groups with the first two comets spiralling towards the east while the others went south and north. Wraith crashed into the ruins of a large business building and watched as it crumbled away, falling to the ground into many different pieces. As the dust and smoke rose into the air Wraith – who was laying on the ground – looked up at the sky and sighed. "Well, that was… quick, and rather unexpected. I guess my part in the Hyperdimension is over, for now at least. Brian, it is up to you to do what needs to be done, no matter how much everyone will hate you for it."

Wraith saw how the sky splintered apart as lightning struck forth, to his amazement everything above was in a dark purple colour with some dark blue mixed in. Everything around him was broken and destroyed, from roads to buildings, nothing looked alive. The tall man sighed and finally realised where he was. "So, this is the Zero Dimension. Funny, it's just like the way it was described to me. Kurome… just what have you done with this accursed place?"

* * *

Brian had gotten back onto his feet, his head in pain and his eyes flaring bright as well as dangerously, he took hold of Gehaburn once more and looked around him. Everything was a mess, more than that, it was a complete and utter ruin. Corpses littered the splintered streets, blood was splattered everywhere and buildings were either on fire and or were completely destroyed. The surviving Dark Followers and citizens of Haruno Village huddled around the ruins, afraid of their enemy and what they had witnessed with the return of the Dark Lord's shade. But the end of the battle had not yet occurred, yet.

What happened next was no fight, but simply a massacre, a genocide, and it would not have happened if a certain someone was not loosing his mind. Brian, seeing that there were still people alive around him grinned in a malevolent and evil way, it would have made even Wraith back off if he were still there; the grin was unsettling and certainly not a facial expression that was his own. Then, targeting the closes group of people near him, the young and maddening Shadow Walker lunged forward and, with a speed unlike anything the others had seen, leapt at one of the nearby Haruno citizens and ripped out the person's throat with his teeth. After throwing the corpse to the ground the Ancient brandished Gehaburn and the broken Gladius at the survivors, slaughtering them indiscriminately, caring not whether they were men, women or children. Brian's goal was to weaken the Dark Lord's influence completely by killing all those who worshipped him, so to slaughter the people of Haruno Village was just a step towards that goal. True, some of the villagers did not worship the Dark Lord and were therefore innocent, but the young man cared little about that, for he was in the middle of a blood crazed state, and was in no mood to end it.

Eventually, after slaughtering everyone in the village, even those who could not defend themselves, there were only two left: a young looking mother and her young child. They sat kneeling before Brian amidst the burning ruins of their village, pleading for her and her child's life. "Please, spare us! We haven't done anything wrong! Show us mercy!" the woman pleaded to the mysterious figure, her child gripped on the mother's sleeve and tried to hide behind the mother.

Brian, however, merely tilted his head before glaring at them. "Mercy is for the weak," the Ancient said before lunging forward with the cursed sword, the blade pierced through the upper chest of the woman before the blade sliced through the flesh and straight into the child. Both of them dropped dead with saddened and frightened expressions.

Then he laughed, not in a normal way, but in a maniacal way that did not seem to fit the blood coated young man, it was as if a part of Agandur had not left the Shadow Walker. He stood in the smoke, the blood, amidst the ruins and the corpses as he laughed, his arms raised and his eyes looking up at the dark, night sky. His mad laugh seem to pierce through all noise and echoed across what had been a thriving community. The beginning of the end had truly arrived.

* * *

 **A/N: Well, that was a dark end for one of my chapters, but I was always going to do it, a part of me just wishes I had made it just a little more bloodier. Regardless, I apologise for the late update, I have been going through some personal issues that I rather not get into at the moment – let's just say that due to all of these combined issues I forced myself to get Fallout 3 to work on Windows 8 so I could unleash some of my stress into it, now I want to make a Fallout Neptunia crossover at some point in the near future. The next chapter will not be as long as this – over 10,000 words for this! - so it may take about a week or just a bit over to complete. Anyway, thank you all for reading this, have a good day if you can and I will see – or read I guess – you all for the next and final chapter of The Rising Darkness.**


	65. The Dark Times Have Come

**Chapter 64: The Dark Times Have Come**

The smoke and the bright beams of blue, red and dark purple were clear to see in the night sky, you did not have to be a genius to know what was going on over at the southern most fringes of Virtua Forest. Just about everyone in Planeptune saw the display of pure and dangerous power, and it made them afraid of what was to come when they heard the news – if they ever heard the news that is, lately the local citizens around Gamindustri had been denied certain news due to it all being focused on Brian and the Dark Captains. Everyone in Planeptune City who was still awake saw the beams of power from the late afternoon and the night, both were not good portents in their opinion. At any rate, things were not looking well.

No matter what the citizens of Planeptune thought about the situation there were a few who looked on in hope yet also fear and wonder, these were the CPUs and their friends who were searching for Brian. The one who was most energetic and concerned was White Heart, also known as Blanc of Lowee. The blue haired, red eyed, HDD mode goddess was walking through the northern most area of Virtua Forest when she saw the beams of multicoloured light burst into the sky, she could feel the dreaded aura that seeped into the air, it made her feel uncomfortable. Straightening Brian Lowean coat and baseball cap – which she was still wearing – the CPU rose into the air and flew with great haste towards the location of the beams of light. _I'm sure Brian has to be there, he has to!_ _There is nowhere else he could be that I can think of. I just hope it isn't bad over there._

So White Heart flew over Virtua Forest, gazing at all the woodlands had to offer. She flew over the ruined remains of the Ancient village, then went over much more of the forest until she arrived at the open glade where Brian and the Dark Captains first met; there the Lowean CPU saw the headless corpse of the Dark Follower. White Heart descended to the ground approached the burial mounds that contained the corpses of the fallen adventurers, the decapitated body of the unfortunate Dark Follower was laying still on the ground in front of the middle mound, her head was located not far away beside a large hollowed log, the blood was dry and stained the grassy ground. The Lowean goddess looked at the situation with a grim expression, her teeth clenched tightly and she looked away.

"Who the hell did this?" White Heart asked herself, continuing to look away before her eyes moved upwards where she saw a few specks flying through the sky towards her. She squinted her eyes to see what was coming her way. "Hey, hold on… that Neptune and company. Oi! You lot! Down here!"

White Heart waved her arms around to gather the attention of Purple Heart and the others who were flying alongside the Planeptunian goddess, as it were there happened to be two other flying with the purple goddess: Iris Heart and Wolf Heart. The three flying CPUs noticed their missing comrade in the open forest glade and flew down to meet her. As they landed on their feet Purple Heart rushed over to her Lowean counterpart with a worried look across her face as she smiled slightly to her. "I was wondering where you went off to," Purple Heart informed the short, bright blue haired goddess before her. "You had us all worried when you went off on your own after the confrontation with those Ancient ghosts. Are you okay?"

White Heart nodded, refusing to show any sort of emotion. "Yeah, I'm fine for now. I haven't seen Brian, but I have found this… er, dead body. Looks kinda recent, at least an hour or two I think. Not sure who did this or why, but this is just horrible."

Purple Heart, Iris Heart and Wolf Heart looked at the headless corpse and grimaced, at least the purple haired goddess of Planeptune did – Iris and Wolf were, instead, rather emotionless about it and did not seem to care at all. To them a dead, headless body was nothing to worry about, what they should be concerned about is whether the killer was still around or not. They both gazed around the place yet could not see or even feel another presence. As the Goddesses of Lowee and Planeptune conversed in conversation about what was going on Wolf looked up to the sky, the wolf-like god saw a few more specks flying nearby towards the location of the bursts of energy and smoke. As they got closer it was easier to see he determined looks on their faces, at least one or two were determined, the others flying around the back of the group appeared to be more sad and grim. The young sadist recognised the figures who were flying through the sky.

"Huh, looks like Noire, Uni and the Lowean twins are out and about," Wolf Heart said to no one in particular. He contemplated not informing the others about the other CPUs, but he did not need to. The group in the sky seemed to take notice of the group on the ground and flew towards them with great speed, when they arrived it was Black Heart who spoke first.

"Ah, Angel, have you found anything regarding Brian's whereabouts?" the silver haired goddess asked the sadistic young man.

Wolf shrugged his shoulders in response. "Not perfectly sure, but I think all that smoke over there is is a good indicator to where he is." He then pointed over to where Haruno Village was located through the dense woodlands of Virtua Forest. "I guess that is where we're all going from the looks of it."

Rom and Ram, in their HDD forms, ran up to their older sister and hugged her tightly around the waist, they appeared worried and almost frightened. White Heart smiled and wrapped her arms around her younger sisters, a caring smile adorned her face. "Are you two alright?" the Lowean CPU asked them.

"I'm worried about big brother," Rom replied, burying her face against White Heart's right shoulder when she bent down to her knees. "Why hasn't he come back?"

White Heart glanced away, her face full of sorrow. "I don't know, Rom, I just don't know. But we'll find him, I'm sure of it." She then looked up to see Black Sister glancing at her, she too seemed worried about the whole situation.

"Stupid big bro," Ram mumbled as she continued to hug her older sister, her head was up against the senior Lowean's CPU left shoulder, a saddened expression was all over her face. "Hey, sis, why are you wearing his coat and hat?"

White Heart looked at her younger, troublemaking sister and sighed depressingly. "I… I found them earlier today, Brian left them behind. I'm sorry I couldn't find him."

"Where's Nepgear, Vert, Iffy, Compa and Victor?" Purple Heart asked her Lastation counterpart, concerned about the whereabouts of the well endowed Leanbox goddess and her own younger sister. "I thought they were with you when we all separated."

"Well we decided to separate and Vert thought it was a good idea to take your sister off with herself and search the roads and wilderness to the east, not sure if Brian is actually over there though since we lost contact with them not long ago. They may still be around the eastern border for all I know. IF, Compa and Victor took off to the north-west, they may be around the Planeptune-Lowee border by now." Black Heart then glanced over to the east and then the north as she grimaced grimly while sighing. "I wonder if we will get any sign from that stupid Ancient?"

Just then, as if on a timed signal, a large and powerful beam of energy made up of bright blue broke out and shot forth into the dark night sky, lighting it up brightly. The group swiftly turned around at the bright blue beam and watched as it pierced through the night sky, to some eyes it looked as if in the middle of the beam there was a phoenix. The display continued for some time but once it disappeared into nothing the group could feel that something was wrong, very wrong, they did not know what was wrong but the group of CPUs could feel it. Purple Heart grimaced and looked towards the location of the beam. "Haruno Village. Brian's in Haruno Village," the purple goddess said in an almost quiet voice. "That's not a good sign, not at all."

"Why is that?" Iris Heart asked, her arms crossed and with an expressionless look across her face as she leaned up against a tree with one leg in front of the other. Wolf Heart was beside her.

"Well, the people of Haruno Village have been more of a burden lately, they have been rather secretive and have also constructed some sort of shrine – not sure what it is for but Histoire has been suggesting it is because of some sort of sinister purpose. I, for one, just believe that they have some odd people living among them is all. There shouldn't be anything to worry about." When Purple Heart looked back towards Haruno Village the group could see the uncertain feeling spreading across her face, her fingers flexed and she bit her lower lip before returning her gaze. "Then again, I have been wrong many times before. Let's check it out, hopefully we can catch up with the others once we get there."

The group silently agreed, took off into the sky and flew towards Haruno Village. There was no breeze to be felt, the temperature was mild – an oddity for a Planeptunian night – and as they neared the village they could see the smoke starting to build up, then came the sight of fire. White Heart began to pick up speed as she raced towards the village, hoping that whatever was going on there was not what going through her mind. As the group of CPUs drew nearer to Haruno Village they saw two humanoid specks in the distance to the south-east and a large creature made out of physical wind magic was flying somewhat far behind them out of the north, the remaining two groups had arrived and were also heading towards Haruno Village; whether they actually had any news regarding Brian was now irrelevant, what was relevant was finding out what was going on in Haruno Village.

As the CPUs and their human friends all converged into one large group they finally caught sight of the actual buildings of Haruno Village, and they were in for a shock as they hovered over the settlement, nothing could prepare them for the horror that awaited them. Down below them was Haruno Village, or what was left of it at least. The village was up in flames, buildings were destroyed and toppled to the ground, the roads and pavements were full of fissures, corpses littered the streets and blood was painted everywhere. The whole place reeked of death and destruction. Rom and Ram averted their eyes, White Heart grimaced grimly but could not look away, Purple Heart and Purple Sister did not not what to do or how to act as they saw what awaited them down below, even the rest of the group had no idea what do to at that moment; an unsettling silence reigned over the area and all feelings seemed to die away into nothing.

Green Heart glanced over at Purple Heart and looked at her questioningly. "Do you have some sort of bandit problem that we are not aware of?"

Purple Heart shook her head. "No, we have no bandits in Planeptune. I just don't know what could have done this."

"Well doing nothing is not going to solve it," Black Heart interjected. "Besides, I have my own thoughts about who or what could have done this, and it isn't good." She then sighed, her expression hardened into a grim look.

White Heart instantly knew what her Lastation counterpart was suggestion about who might have committed the atrocity before them, and she did not like it. "The hell are you saying?! That Brian did this?! You rotting bitch! He couldn't have done this, it just isn't like him!"

Black Heart, seething with anger over the Lowean CPU's outburst, would have refuted her claim, that was until Wolf Heart entered the mix. "Actually, Blanc, he would do something like this. Not only is it in his nature due to him being a cursed Ancient but Brian once told me he was the type of person who would watch the world burn, and laugh at the misery of others." When the wolf-like CPU looked over at White Heart he saw the pained look in her expression, he could not help but snicker. "Heh, looks you still don't know your boyfriend that well."

The Lowean goddess growled viciously at the young sadist and flexed the muscles in her wrists and arms as if she was going to start a brawl with him, but in the end White Heart refrained from doing so, mainly because she did not want Iris Heart using her as some sort of 'toy' afterwards. Instead the blue haired goddess looked away from the rest of the group and sighed sadly, hoping that Brian was not the cause of Haruno Village's destruction. _Brian couldn't have done this, he couldn't have. All that time I was trying to help him would have prevented something like this. Come to think of it, this reminds me of that nightmare I had in Lastation when I dreamt of Brian destroying some sort of town and killing everyone in it, including a mother and her child as well as me. Oh no, don't let it be true, please don't!_

Victor looked grimly at the scene before them as he landed his giant, wind eagle and dismounted it alongside IF and Compa, all three did not want to be in the village. "Well, guess we got to start somewhere," Victor said as he straightened his back and held his cane tightly, he then looked back at White Heart. "Lady Blanc, I think it would be a prudent idea to send Lady Rom and Lady Ram back to the Planeptune Basilicom and await our return."

White Heart nodded in agreement, knowing that keeping Rom and Ram with the group while searching the remains of Haruno Village would be an unwise decision, they still had the minds of young adolescents and could not comprehend what was going on. The Lowean CPU looked at her younger sisters and smiled in a caring way. "Rom, Ram, I need you tw oto return to the Planeptune Basilicom and wait for us. Don't worry, if we find Brian I'll let you know. Go."

Rom and Ram wanted to stay yet they also wanted to leave and wait, so in the end they left and flew back to Planeptune City with Purple Sister and Black Sister following them just to keep them company, plus they CPU Candidates of Planeptune and Lastation did not want to be around Haruno Village due to the bloody scene that they saw. Now only the senior CPUs, Victor, IF and Compa remained to search the ruins of Haruno. The shortened group descended to the ground and began to walk through the torn up streets, gazing at the wreckage of the village, Compa thought she was going to be sick when she came across the bloodied corpses of a young family – a mother, father and their child. The nurse-in-training turned away swiftly and did her best not to throw up the contents of her stomach. When IF and Victor approached her they too noticed the scene in the ruined, almost burnt house, and they were horrified.

"Who the hell could have done this?" IF asked, her voice almost quiet from shock. "What kind of monster could have done this to these people?"

"It was no monster, but a human," Victor said in response. The top hat wearing man was kneeling down in front of another dead body, but this one had a clear indication about how he died. "See this mark? That is the work of a sword. So either a heavily evolved monster is capable of using modern weapons and technology to wipe out an entire village, or a bloodthirsty human had decided to use the people here as his or her plaything. From what I know about the denizen creatures of Gamindustri, and from what we saw with that familiar beam of light earlier, I'd say that it was a human. And I have a feeling that we know who did this."

The Guild Agent nodded sadly, guessing – correctly – as to who destroyed Haruno Village and slaughtered its residents, yet she did not want to believe it, she just could not believe it. "Let's hope we're wrong, dead wrong," IF mumbled, looking away from the carnage around her, Victor and Compa.

Black Heart and Green Heart were utterly horrified at the scene around them, nothing in the two centuries of their life had prepared them for this. They stood close together with Purple Heart and White Heart not far behind, Iris Heart and Wolf Heart had gone off on their own towards the western part of the village where the shrine was located; they were all looking for any survivors, yet deep down they knew that there were no survivors to be found, they could just feel it. They soon came across a red mist which was flowing up from the ground and into the air, the mist slowly dissipated into nothing. The group of CPUs glanced quizzically at each other and shrugged before resuming their search through the village, the hope of finding any survivors was growing slim in their minds. Little did they know that the red mist was all that was left of Severia the Stoic, her body had turned into a red mist shortly after the CPUs, Victor, IF and Compa had arrived at the village.

Iris Heart and Wolf Heart arrived at what was left of the shrine and found only the ruined foundations of the building as well as a few corpses, along with a mysterious red mist that was floating in the air aimlessly. Little did either CPUs knew that the red mist was all that was left of the Right Hand of Agandur, the corpse of the leader of the Dark Captains had, just like his companions, had turned into the energy that fed his master. Iris and Wolf looked at each other questioningly before shrugging their shoulders and resumed their search throughout the ruins, passing corpses and destroyed buildings for any signs of Brian, not that they believed that any further signs were necessary – they firmly believed that they knew who did the deed.

The CPU of Lowee, however, was hoping that there was no indication that Brian had committed such a brutal act against the village, and even if he did do it she had no idea why the one she loved would have done it; the thought of finding clear evidence regarding Brian's involvement in the massacre would break her heart and shatter her hope. As she continued to search the ruins with Purple Heart at her side they both came across a broken blade with a missing hilt, there were several battle scars all over it and the ground around it looked as if it had been burnt by lightning, it did not look like a good sign to them. The Lowean goddess picked up the broken blade and almost immediately recognised it: the broken blade belonged to none other than Brian, it was his Gladius. Purple Heart walked up to her Lowean counterpart and gazed at the broken Gladius in her hands, she could hear White Heart mumbling to herself, always muttering the same words over and over again.

"Don't let this be true, don't let this be true, don't let this be true," White Heart mumbled, her arms shaking slightly as the truth seeped into her. The Lowean CPU did not want to believe it, yet she had to face the facts and believe it to be true. But when White Heart accepted the truth it hurt her more than anything else had.

As the blue haired CPU shivered in a mix of fear and anger Purple Heart had moved onward to what looked like the remains of a garden with several trees, one of which had been decorated in a rather gruesome manner. The corpse of a person was up against one of the trees with a black sword pierced through the chest and into the trunk of the tree, the person's head was lowered and blood was everywhere. What shocked the Planeptunian goddess was the fact that she recognised the sword. She approached it carefully and removed it from the dead body, grimacing as the body slumped over and fell onto the ground. Taking a moment to breathe the CPU of Planeptune returned to White Heart, who was now with the rest of the group. When she returned the purple goddess held the black sword up for the group to see.

"Do you recognise this sword?" Purple Heart asked them, her expression grim and sad. She was holding up Brian's Armas Mecha Sword that he picked up in Lastation. "I found this in the corpse of someone back over there by a tree. I guess we do not need any more evidence regarding Brian's involvement in this… this massacre."

Everyone seemed convinced, except White Heart, who was still holding onto a thin shred of hope that Brian did not destroy Haruno Village. "N-Now hold on, maybe it was the Dark Captains who destroyed this place and slaughtered the people who lived here, maybe it wasn't Brian who did this." Yet no matter how convincing she could make her words sound she knew the truth: Brian did massacre the village and destroy it in a bloodthirsty fit of rage.

"Open your damn eyes already, Blanc! Brain did this, not the Dark Captains. They are missing and probably dead, your blasted boyfriend is missing and two of his weapons are here, you don't need any more evidence to support the fact that Brian was the one who did this!" Black Heart shouted at the Lowean CPU, her temper had reach a critical stage and she had become fed up with White Heart's attempts to reason with everyone. "Just face the facts already, will you? I don't like it as well as you and everyone else, but you have to face the fact that Brian is a murderer. He's no hero, he's a villain."

IF and Compa just could not believe what they where hearing, but the Guild Agent knew that it was the truth, the nurse-in-training just did not want to believe it though. Ever since they first knew Brian they had understood that he was more than different, but both had hoped that the young man would change into someone much more nicer thanks to Blanc, although that appeared to be out the window due to recent events. At any rate, the words of Black Heart had seeped into everyone's minds, and they agreed that Brian was indeed a villain. He needed to be found, although the reason was now less than benevolent. The group decided to split up and search vigorously for the young Ancient, searching high and low throughout the burnt out village for any signs of his whereabouts, but none could be found. Tensions were rising and anger was building. Hours passed and nothing could be found, that was until White Heart, who was now carrying the broken Gladius and the Armas Mecha Sword with her, discovered a track of footsteps that led out of the village and towards the south-west. The Lowean CPU immediately followed the tracks without pause, never stopping to rest.

* * *

It felt like hours to White Heart, but in reality it was at least an hour or two of swift walking through the edges of Virtua Forest and around the mountain range, but time seemed to go faster for her as she walked. Finally, after a long time of walking the sounds of the ocean came flooding into her ears, the sounds of waves hitting the shore was a calming effect on her already troubled mind. As the blue haired, red eyed goddess of the north emerged onto the south-west coastline of Planeptune she gazed at the water of the ocean, the moonlight flickered brightly off the water which made a dazzling sight to the Lowena CPU. But her eyes were soon caught by the attention of a lonesome figure who stood by the coast, the gentle waves flowed over his booted feet while his chainmail and leather covered arms were by his sides, a peculiar helmet was upon his head, his back was facing the CPU of Lowee and a dark purple blade was sticking out of the sand next to him. Despite the outlandish attire White Heart knew who it was, the bond between them was strong.

"Brian?" White Heart asked, doing her best to keep her anger from erupting out into the open. When the young Ancient turned around to face her she noticed how his eyes were flaring bright blue and a wicked grin was on his face, blood was splattered all over him. It made the Lowean CPU back off in horror. "What… what happened? Why? Why?"

"I did it because it was necessary. Those pompous bastards deserved it for worshipping the Dark Lord. I did this world a favour, and I relish in it. Slaughtering the wicked, the corrupt, any and all deserved it. I… love it!" Then he laughed – it was a crazed laugh that echoed through the night.

White Heart had had enough. With great speed the Lowean CPU brought her fist against Brian's chest and sent him backwards, then came an uppercut blow against his chin which resulted in the young man's helmet flying off, then came several more punches to his chest and gut. White Heart was relentless in her strikes, never stopping to take a few breaths as she pummelled her fists into her lover, her rage intensified as she continued her assault, feeling no remorse and no pity. Eventually the Lowean goddess landed a savage blow to the left side of Brian head, sending the young man to the ground onto his back with his arms sprawled across the sand. White Heart stomped on the Ancient and materialised her giant, bright blue axe before raising it above her. As she struck downwards the axe stopped within an inch of Brian's face, as the young man looked up at the CPU's face he saw tears rolling down her face and onto his leather armoured chest, she dropped her axe and collapsed on top of Brian, her legs on either side of him while her hands were on his chest.

Brian, for the first time that night since he visited the ruins of the Ancient village, felt something stir within him, something that his dark personality had tried to get rid off. It was sadness – the light personality was starting to unearth once more. Suddenly White Heart found herself being hugged tightly by Brian, he was sitting up with his arms around her and his head was resting on top of her left shoulder, the blue haired goddess could feel tears running down onto her coated shoulder. Brian was crying noiselessly. White Heart was astounded, yet her anger died away as she returned the hug, gladdened by the fact that the young man had returned to his senses. When they both leaned back and stared at each other both could see the tears running down each other's cheeks. The Lowean CPU chuckled and rubbed the tears off Brian face, silently glad that his eyes and personality had returned to normal, yet she could not help but still feel angry and hateful towards him.

"Blanc, do you hate me for what I've done?" Brian asked her, hos voice almost quiet and sad. He could not look at White Heart when he asked her that question, instead he chose to look away towards the sea – the Sundering Sea.

The small CPU of Lowee sighed depressingly and glanced away whilst rubbing her right arm nervously, when she spoke it too was almost quiet yet audible. "Yes. I hate you, but I still love you. Don't ask me how that works, it just does."

The young Ancient chuckled, yet it was clear to White Heart that he was in main, mentally at least. He bowed his head and began to mumble. "What have I done? By the gods, what have I done? _When the present and the future stand to do battle and friendship suffer_ s. If only I knew what it meant before all this."

Before White Heart could say anything to him the sounds of footsteps in the sand were heard, both Brian and White Heart looked to see who it was as they stood up onto their feet, they were unsure about what to do when they figured out who was coming towards them. To their surprise the person who they saw before them was none other than Purple Heart, a cold look was on her face as she stared at Brian; the fond and joyful memories that she had with him seemed little to her now. When the CPU of Planeptune turned her gaze towards White Heart the Lowean CPU could feel the pain brewing within the Planeptunian goddess. "I knew you would find him, Blanc, you always had a knack of finding others," Purple Heart said, beginning to address the situation at hand. "Blanc, why haven't you taken Brian into custody already? You saw what he did back at Haruno."

Brian looked at White Heart and saw her grimacing grimly, deciding on something important as she listened to Purple Heart's words. Eventually the Lowena CPU grabbed her giant axe and held it with two hands in a defensive position in front of Brian, shielding him as best she could from the Planeptunian CPU. Purple Heart, meanwhile, was astounded at what White Heart was doing. "You would throw away everything you have been given over the last two centuries for love?"

"It isn't just because of love! There's good in him, Neptune, I can feel it! And I know you can too. We're both connected to him, his Share Energy flows within our Sharicites, if we concentrate we can feel what Brian feels, and I can feel the conflict within him, I can feel the pain and the grief for what he has done. We can't arrest him, we just can't!"

Purple Heart stared at Brian and White Heart, it appeared to them that she seemed uncertain about what to do. Eventually the purple goddess walked up to them, no hint of aggression was visible. As she stopped in front of White Heart, instead a small smile crept onto her face as she looked at the two of them. "Blanc, get Brian out of here before the others find out where we are. Take him to Lowee and keep him safe. I'll let Rom and Ram know that you went back home, but I will not tell them the whole truth. Keep him safe."

The Lowean CPU leaned upward and began to whisper into Purple Heart's right ear. "Hey, Neptune, you don't happen to like Brian, do you?"

The purple goddess chuckled and whispered back. "I did, before all of this. I'm embarrassed to say this, but for a long time I was jealous of how you and Brian were so close, then I heard about how the two of you were going out. It just made me… sad, I guess. Heh, if he and Angel hadn't gone to Lowee I think everything would be quite different. Let me talk to him, please."

The Lowean CPU sighed and stood aside, her axe disappeared and she watched as Purple Heart stood in front of Brian, barely able to hold back her emotions. "Brian, as of now, you are hereby banished from Planeptune and its domain, you must never return. I'm sorry, but it has to be done. Although I know that you won't listen to that, am I right?"

Brian nodded, confirming what he had heard. "Got that right. The Ancient village lies within Planeptune's border, and since I am the emperor of the dead spirits who linger there I have the right to go there without interference. However, I will do my best to avoid your petty and ungrateful citizens. Watch out for them, Neptune, they'll be the death of you one day." The Ancient then turned over and glanced at White Heart. "Come on, Blanc, let's get outta here. Goodbye, Neptune, and good luck with the future."

Now Purple Heart was unable to hold back her tears, she cried and turned around to hide it. "Th-Thank you, Brian. Now please, before the others arrive, go." Brian and White Heart nodded, the Lowean CPU took hold of the young man by wrapping her arms around his chest and lifted off into the sky, they were not too high in the sky just in case the other CPUs and their friends were able to see them. They then made their way to Lowee without pause, making sure that no one saw them as the sun began to creep up over the eastern horizon.

* * *

When Brian and White Heart finally returned to the Lowean Basilicom the sun had already started to rise, the city of Lowee began to spring to life and the citizens ventured forth into the cold morning. Rom and Ram had returned as they could to see their older sister and the young man, both of whom were glad to see the Candidates again. By the time it was eight in the morning half of Lowee was awake, as was everyone else in the Basilicom. None of the security or other members of the staff, not including Mina, knew about the fact that Brian was in the Basilicom under the ever watchful eye of their CPU.

As the morning brightened over all of Gamindustri a lonesome young man sat on a chair on front of a wooden, white desk with a computer before him, he was absent-mindedly clicking around and reading the texts without a care in the world, all sorts of emotions and thoughts were running through his head as he read through an electronic draft of his and Blanc's future novel. He wore a set of outlandish leather and chainmail armour, gloves and boots, a steel helmet with a strange design was on the desk next to him. _I can't stay here, it would endanger_ _Blanc, Rom, Ram and Mina, not to mention that_ _all of Lowee will be in danger if I choose to stick around any longer._ _That does it, I've made up my mind, and I know Blanc isn't going to like it._

Just then Blanc entered the room – her room to be specific – and made her way towards the young man, a plate with various amount of food was held in her left hand and a knife and fork were held in her right hand. She closed the oversized door behind her and approached Brian, placing the plate and cutlery in front of him. "Here, I managed to sneak you some breakfast. Eat up," Blanc informed the young man, smiling as best she could.

Brian nodded a 'thank you' to Blanc and began to dig into his food, the food was warm and tasted delicious, overall it tasted pretty good. The young Ancient looked up at the Lowean CPU and managed to form a small smile on his face as he stared at her. "Did you cook this up?" he asked her. When Blanc nodded with a slight blush across her cheeks the young man chuckled. "Well, it tastes really good. Thank you, Blanc."

"Y-Your welcome," Blanc stammered, happy that her breakfast was even edible.

"Hey, Blanc, I need to talk to you about something," Brian told the Lowean CPU after he finished his breakfast as quickly yet humanly as possible, catching her off guard. "It's about what becomes of me now. I'm sorry, Blanc, but I cannot stay here, it would only endanger you, Rom, Ram and everyone else that lives here, not even this city would be safe from the rest of Gamindustri. Besides, word about what happened at Haruno Village would have spread like wildfire already, I can't put you and the others in more trouble than you already are." He sighed and looked out the nearby window, his expression grim. "I've already told you about the return of Agandur the Dark Lord, that's another reason why I must go."

Blanc gritted her teeth and clenched her fists, she did her best from keeping back the tears that were beginning to swell in the corners of her eyes; she did not like what Brian was suggesting at all. "What, so you're saying you're gonna run away?! Try to escape the law by running and hiding?! You're a complete idiot if you think that can work! Besides, the Dark Lord is just in a spirit form, he is of no danger to Gamindustri. You damn asshole."

"I guess you can say that. But I'm doing this for you, Rom, Ram, Mina and everyone else. Can't you see? If I stay here for a long period of time then the people will drive you out and possibly try to kill me. I'm doing this for you, Blanc, and for everyone else; I have to leave, for the good of Lowee and all of Gamindustri. I'm sorry."

Blanc could no longer hold back her tears, she embraced the young Ancient in a tight hug and cried, her tears staining the dark brown leather armour as her emotions came running forth. The young man returned the hug and rested his head on top of Blanc's, he rubbed her head gently and sighed in a sad way. The Ancient would have cried alongside the Lowean CPU, but he found no more tears to shed. Eventually the two broke the hug and held each other's shoulders, staring at one another. Eventually the silence was broken by Blanc. "I may hate you, but I still love you," the Lowean goddess said, her grip tightening.

Brian smiled back at Blanc. "I love you too, Blanc." They both leaned forward and their lips connected together, holding each other by the waist. After a few minutes they leaned back and stared at each other's eyes lovingly, then the young Ancient spoke. "I'll leave when night falls, that way hopefully no one sees me. I'm sorry I have to do this, but there is no other way."

Blanc nodded, knowing that it had to be done. "I understand, Brian. Just be careful, alright? I don't want you to get hurt." They both smiled at each before leaning forward for another gentle kiss, this time their tongues became intertwined, their arms wrapped around each other's backs and necks as they made out, their minds troubled for what the future had in store for them.

* * *

Far away in another dimension the seeds of war were brewing, the plotting of a certain Dark CPU was beginning to take shape, the hordes of daemons were ready for combat, everything was going according to plan. In the throne room of the oddly shaped dimension – the Heart Dimension – a sinister, dark blue haired woman sat with a map of Gamindustri laying next to her on a small table, several multicoloured pins were sticking out of certain areas. The Dark CPU lifted a bright blue pin and stuck it in Haruno Village, then a red pin followed soon afterwards. Kurome grinned at the map and an almost quiet chuckle escaped her throat. "So, Agandur has returned, and the Shadow Walker is on the run. Amusing," Kurome muttered to herself.

"Is that so? Interesting," a cold voice said from out of the shadows. As Kurome glanced around to see who it was she saw the Bone Lord enter her vicinity, he was walking in a slow pace and with great care. She watched as his bone armour disappeared in a dark blue mist, revealing the steel plated armour and chainmail underneath, he flicked back his grey hood to reveal his shortish yet wavering brown hair with grey strands flowing through it, the three scars on the right side of his face were clear to see. The tall man with the left brown eye and right daemonic red eye stood next to Kurome, wondering what she was doing. "What have you been up to?"

"Oh nothing much, just plotting away as usual. Although I am ready to unleash the next wave of monsters onto the Zero Dimension. Apart from that nothing much. But what do you want, Bone Lord?"

The tall, grey cloaked man snorted and stared at Kurome, his eyes flashed dark blue. "Must you keel calling me that? You know who I really am."

"Very well then. What do you want, Bleddyn the First Ancient and greatest Emperor of the Old World?" Kurome grumbled silently, hating the fact that she was working alongside an Ancient, especially the first of that old race.

"You know damn well what I am here for: my sword. Where is Gehaburn?"

The Dark CPU glanced away, showing no signs of emotion whatsoever. "Hmm, about that, I don't actually have Gehaburn. I gave it to my Oracle, a snotty nosed brat of a tome fairy called Croire, and I have not seen it since." The death stare she received from Bleddyn would have been enough for most people to wet their pants, or even die of shock and horror, but Kurome had seen worse. "What? I never said I had it, did I? Besides, your descended, that Shadow Walker who also happens to be the last Ancient, has Gehaburn. Are you planning to take a short holiday to retrieve it from him? He's grown rather attached to it."

Belddyn sighed and began to walk away, no longer caring about the conversation. "No, let that brat of an Ancient keep it, it is a family heirloom after all. Besides, what's the harm of letting him hold onto it for just a while longer? He is my descended, so he shares the same blood curse as I do. Anyway, you have fun with your war with that other version of yourself, I'm just going to go back to the Legion of the Damned and stick around with them for a while longer." The first Ancient then disappeared into the shadow, his presence could no longer be felt by Kurome as she turned her attention back to the map of Gamindustri.

 _She isn't another version of me, she is what I once was. I cannot allow her to exist. War is coming, a new age will dawn and all that will be seen is conflict. The end is coming, and Agandur, Bleddyn and I are the heralds of this new age. You better watch yourself, Brian the Shadow Walker, and all of your friends and enemies as well. Death comes for all of you. This is an age of war._

* * *

 **A/N: That just about wraps up this fanfic, and it took a long time to get up to this point, it was definitely worth it. Honestly, I never thought I would get to the ending, I always thought I would just drop it after a while, I'm glad I didn't. Now, aside from the sequel I do have some other projects in mind: a Fallout Neptunia crossover, a few more Neptunia fanfics concerning a few of the characters who don't get much spotlight, even a Fairy Fencer F is a possibility sometime in the future. But I will also be continuing some of the fanfics I already started and will go on with that for a short while before starting the sequel. Anyway, the sequel I keep going on about is going to be much, much longer, have plenty of fight scenes in it, some drama, adventure, suspense, romance and fourth wall breaking; oh, and it will have lemons, much more lemons than The Rising Darkness ever had I assure you all. Get ready for the upcoming sequel:**

 **Hyperdimension Neptunia: Age of War**

 **See you all then!**


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